A Eureka Moment
by Tetsuwan Penguin
Summary: Dr. Tenma joins the staff of Global Dynamics at Eureka. This is my first cross over story with Eureka and Astro Boy.
1. Chapter 1

**Eureka Moment**

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_My first Eureka - Astro Boy cross over story.  
_

_Dr. Tenma reports for work at General Dynamics in Eureka, with his son Tobio in tow._

* * *

**Chapter one**

Sheriff Jack Carter was sitting in Cafe Diem. He had just ordered a cup of coffee and scrambled eggs for his breakfast when he felt his BlackBerry phone vibrate in his pocket, and then heard the distinctive ring tone for an incoming text message. He pulled the phone from his pocket and opened the communication. It was from Dr. Douglas Fargo, head of the Global Dynamics company's section located in Eureka. The message was simple. "_Need U in my office, now_".

Jack yelled to Vincent who was busy cooking and asked, "Can you make mine to go, perhaps as a sandwich on an English Muffin?"

Vincent moaned and quickly finished cooking Carter's eggs, slapped them between two English muffins, and warped and bagged the order He handed the bag, and a large insulated Styrofoam cup of coffee to the Sheriff.  
Jack jumped into his Jeep, and drove the short distance to Fargo's office in Global Dynamics main building. Fargo had been made head of G.D. in Eureka following a strange time warp that had involved himself and several of his close G.D. associates, including Jo Lupo, Dr. Henry Deacon, and Dr. Allison Blake. If a time paradox could happen anywhere, it would almost be expected in Eureka.

Carter pushed the door to Douglas's office open a crack to see that the Dr. had a guest. Fargo and the other man were standing in front of his desk, having a friendly discussion. The other man was better than a head taller than Dr. Fargo, well over six feet in fact. He was well dressed in a neatly pressed suit, and well groomed. He had a full head of dark black hair, a matching beard, and a prominent roman nose.

Dr. Fargo noticed Jack standing in the door way and motioned for him to enter. "Come in Jack, there's someone I need you to meet."

Jack entered the office, and then noticed the young boy sitting quietly in a chair right in front of Fargo's desk. The lad looked around ten to twelve years of age, and about four to four and a half feet in height. He had the same dark hair color as his dad (Carter assumed that the boy was the man's son). The kid's hair was well combed with two spikes sticking up in the back of his head, both held in place by lots of hair gel and spray. He was dressed in mid thigh length short black pants, a light blue tee shirt, and red boots. The boy was fidgeting as he sat, and was eyeing some "toys" sitting on Douglas's desk.

"Jack, this is Dr. Taro Uma Tenma, formally of the Japanese Institute of Science. Dr. Tenma will be joining our staff here at G.D., and he'll be the new head of our Robotics group. I've just been explaining to him about the company's benefits and housing plan. He'll be living in the house formally occupied by Dr. Stark. The movers have just arrived with his belongings. I was going to run him over there, but I've just found out I have a high level meeting with the General in a half hour, so would you and Andy mind giving him a ride?"

Carter knew that Fargo's real reason for handing the job over to him was to avoid any heavy lifting. No doubt he and Andy would end up assisting the movers. Well, it had promised to be a slow day anyway, and he was in a good mood.

"No problem, Dr. Fargo," Carter smiled.

"Oh where are my manors?" Fargo said. "This is Dr. Tenma's son, Tobio."

The boy finally gave in to the temptation, and grabbed the remote control for Fargo's quad copter and started it up. The flying model started buzzing about the office. It seemed that Tobio had the machine under control, but his father noticed him playing with it and yelled at him.

"TOBIO, PUT THAT DOWN!"

The boy was startled by his dad's outburst and lost control of the model 'copter. The miniature flying machine crashed into the glass shelves on the rear wall of the office and knocked down the miniature figurines that had been sitting there.

Fargo flinched, but didn't loose his cool. He picked up the model quad-copter and handed it to the boy, after picking up the remote control from the floor. He handed that to Dr. Tenma.

"You seem to have better mastery of that toy than I do, why don't you keep it, Tobio?" Douglas told him.

Carter's robotic deputy, Andy, was waiting in the Jeep outside of G.D. H.Q. Dr. Tenma and Tobio got in the back seat, and Carter sat next to Andy who was in the driver's seat. Andy turned around to face their guests and said hello. He smiled at Tobio.

The boy's face suddenly lit up, and with a big grin he said, "Hey, you're a robot, just like ..."

"TOBIO!", Dr. Tenma interrupted him.

"That's quite alright," Andy said. "I took no offense in the boy's pointing out the obvious, although I must say, the kid is quite bright and observant to have noticed so quickly."

Andy put the Jeep in gear and they headed off to the house where Dr. Tenma and son would be living.

It was a short ride, and they quickly arrived at the Tenma's assigned house. The door was already open, and a moving van was parked in front with the family's belongings. Two burly looking men had already started carrying in the van's contents.

"I'm so glad that the movers could arrive today. I thought we'd be stuck in a hotel for a week," Dr. Tenma said.

"We tend to be rather efficient around here in Eureka. G.D. takes good care of their employees," Andy remarked proudly.

Dr. Tenma and Tobio entered the house and started looking around. The Dr. looked around the first floor and spied a room that he was apparently looking for. He also noticed a large box marked fragile. It was a heavy corrugated box held together by sealing tape and reinforced with rope.

"Ah, I was worried about this one. It seems intact. Can someone help me move this box into my downstairs office?"

Before the Sheriff could even offer to help, Tobio grabbed the top of the box by the rope, using it as a handle. The boy lifted the box effortlessly with one hand, and started to carry it toward the office.

"TOBIO! PUT THAT DOWN, IT'S FRAGILE!" his father yelled.

Tobio quickly set the box down and hurried away from it.

"I'll get it for you," Carter offered.

Jack grabbed the box by the rope handle in the same manor that Tobio had. Based on seeing how the boy picked the box up, he was prepared for a light weight object. He pulled up quickly on the rope and almost ripped his arm out of its socket. The damn thing was heavy, and must have weighed at least 60 lbs! Carter tried again, this time using both hands, one on each side of the box. He lifted it with some effort, but was able to carry it to the requested location.

Jack and Andy remained on the premises while the movers finished the deliver. They helped move some items around, but it would be up to Dr. Tenma and son to finish the job to their own likings.

"Thank you very much Sheriff. You can tell Dr. Fargo I really appreciate his handling of my arrival, and that tomorrow I'll be busy getting Tobio started in school here in Eureka. Once he's settled in, I'll be reporting in to G.D. to start my new position."

Jack drove back to the Sheriff's office. Andy took off to patrol around town, and Carter walked into the police station. Jo Lupo was seated at her desk when Jack walked in. She looked up at him.

"Where have you been all day?"

"Dr. Fargo put Andy and myself to work helping Dr. Tenma move in." He replied.

"Oh, Dr. Taro Uma Tenma, the new head of G.D.'s robotics group? I worked up the dossier on him before he was hired. Brilliant scientist and engineer, but a little weird." She said.

"Dr. Tenma didn't seem very abnormal to me, though he was a bit harsh with his son."

"Son?" Jo asked.

"Yeah, he had his boy Tobio with him. Very cute kid, quite smart too. He actually acted a bit strange though, if you ask me." Carter answered.

"That's rather weird. When I did the research on Dr. Tenma, I came up with a police report for a fatal accident involving a Tobio Tenma."

"Well, maybe the report was in error, because I saw the kid as plain as day."

"Well, I guess it's possible. Anyway, it probably doesn't matter. Fargo saw my report, and he approved Tenma's hiring. So it's out of our hands now.


	2. Chapter 2

**Eureka Moment**

**Chapter two**

**Tesla School**

Jo Lupo filled several jobs in the town of Eureka. Officially she was head of security for G.D., however she still kept her office in the Police department building where she had served as Jack Carter's deputy. Now that Andy served that position, she rarely did patrol around the town, although her security position often required her presence outside of G.D.'s facilities.

Another one of her duties was to oversee the enrollment operations of the town's schools. She performed this job function on demand, today she had a scheduled appointment with Dr. Tenma to enroll his son in school. Eureka was a small town, with a small student population. There were two schools, Albert Einstein Elementary, and Nicoli Tesla High. The Tesla High School was often just referred to as 'Tesla School', as it housed both the Jr. and Sr. high school grades. Tobio Tenma was to be placed in the bottom grade at Tesla, though that could change after some testing.

She was sitting in her office at Tesla School reading over the enrollment papers that had already been prefiled several days before. The town rules required the parent and child to be interviewed.

Dr. Tenma and son arrived exactly on time. This would be her first encounter with him and she looked him over carefully. The man was well dressed in a business suit. He stood somewhat over six feet tall, had a full head of dark hair and a beard that did not dominate his face. Tobio Tenma held onto his father's hand as they entered the office. The boy was about two thirds his father's height. He had dark hair that was neatly combed with two distinctive spikes sticking out the back of his head, that were held at bay by lots of gel and hair spray. It almost made his hair look like 'plastic'. Tobio was dressed in short dark pants, a blue jacket, and a red bow tie. He also wore a pair of red boots that came up about half way on his calves.

Jo motioned for the two of them to sit down. Dr. Tenma gave her his full attention, almost staring directly into her eyes. His son sat next to his father, tapping his foot on the floor with a constant rhythm.

"Good morning Dr. Tenma, and you too Tobio. I understand you plan on enrolling your son in our Tesla school. It seems that all of the papers are in order, and I'll just need some signatures in my presence. I do have some questions for you though. They may be a bit personal, I hope you understand that security in this town is kept rather high due to the nature of Global Dynamics work with the government."

"I quite understand Ms. Lupo. Please ask me what you need to."

"I'm curious why we were so lucky to acquire your services here in Eureka and G.D. Weren't you the head of Japan's institute of Science? Why would you leave such a prestigious position?" Jo asked.

"I left for purely personal reasons. I don't have any regrets, and I'm happy to know that a very qualified colleague has taken over my position. The institute was left in very capable hands." Tema answered.

Jo got up from her desk and walked over to the doctor. She motioned for him to follow her to the back of the room. Tenma took the hint and walked with her, he motioned to his son to stay where he was.

"During the research for your security clearance I uncovered a traffic accident report filed by the Takondanobaba police. It listed a Tobio Tenma as a fatality. How can you explain that?" she said pointing to Tobio.

Tenma maintained a poker face. "Did you also find a coroner's report, or a death warrant for Tobio?"

"You know I didn't."

"Well then. It's obvious isn't it. The police don't always get their facts right, do they?"

Jo wasn't giving up so easily.

"I also was able to reach a certain Dr. Ochanomizu at the Institute of Science. You did give him as a reference, didn't you? He stated that you left following an argument over proceeding with a certain project that your fellow scientists objected to. He also stated that he thought you might have proceeded with it in secret on your own before leaving."

"As I said, I left for personal reasons. So what if I had some differences with my coworkers. I've been told that heated displays of ego are not uncommon even here at Global Dynamics. It's a sign of genius, or so I've been told. I also assume that Dr. Ochanomizu confirmed my qualifications in the field of robotics."

"Yes he did, in spades." Jo admitted.

"Very well then. Now about my son entering your fabulous school. Can we proceed with that?"

Jo Lupo walked back to her desk and sat down. Well she lost that round, but there was one ace left up her sleeve.

"Let's see, you stated Tobio's chronological age as 10 years old. The preliminary tests on his IQ and general learning indicate that we should place him in the 7th or 8th grade at Tesla. We'll start him in the 7th and let his teachers evaluate him. Does that sound reasonable?"

"I think that will be fine, Ms. Lupo"

"Tobio, are you looking forward to starting school?", Jo asked the boy.

"Yes, Ms. Lupo. I can't wait to make some friends here in Eureka."

"I'm sure you will son," she said.

"Well, there is just one other thing. Tobio will need report to Dr. Allison Blake for a physical exam prior to starting school. All new students are required to have a medical exam report on their record."

"I believe I've already submitted a medical report for my son with his application," Dr. Tenma insisted.

"You did, however we'd like our own medical team to have a look at him. We make the same request for all new students," Jo smiled.

"Very well, I'll take Tobio to see your Dr. Blake. Just make us an appointment."

Jo looked carefully at the doctor. He still didn't seem to have cracked. Well, we'll see what Allison comes up with she thought.

Tenma signed the documents that Jo presented to him, and she handed him a contact card for Dr. Allison. The doctor and his son walked out of the office as she scanned and filed the documents.

**Global Dynamics, Medical Facilities, Dr. Allison Blake's Office **

Dr. Allison Blake was the head of the Global Dynamics Medical Technology division. She was also a licensed physician, and although she didn't make house calls, she did find herself performing routine medical examinations for G.D. employees, and their school children from time to time.

Today was one of those occasions, she was now expecting Dr. Tenma and his son Tobio, for the boy's medical certification requirement to enroll in the Tesla school. Her medical office was located in the main building of G.D.'s campus, not far from Dr. Fargo's office. She didn't have to wait long after entering her office before Dr. Tenma and son appeared.

"Good morning Dr. Blake."

Allison turned to see the tall gentleman standing in the doorway to the office, with his son standing next to him.

"Ms. Lupo told me to expect you Dr. Tenma. So this is Tobio? Welcome to Eureka young man."

"Dr. Blake, Tobio was examined by a doctor in Japan just before we left. I have the medical reports with me. Can't you just approve him fit for school based on the existing files I've already forwarded? It seems like an unnecessary duplication of effort for you to have to waste your time with a medical examination."

Allison reached over to the shelf for a pair of latex gloves.

"Come on Dr. Tenma. This won't take me very long at all, not with the advanced equipment we have here."

The thought suddenly occurred to Dr. Blake that maybe there was something funny going on here and that Dr. Tenma had a good reason to avoid Tobio being examined. She couldn't place her finger on it, but there was something in the doctor's voice.

She turned to face him, only to find a beam of light shinning in her face. Dr. Tenma had what looked like a flashlight in his hand. It emitted a beam of multicolored light that had a dazzling effect. Allison felt confused and dizzy. After an unknown period of time, the effect slowly lifted, and she found herself staring at Dr. Tenma as she snapped out of the trance she had been in.

"Do you feel alright Dr. Blake?" Tenma asked.

"I'm sorry. I suddenly felt dizzy for a moment. Where were we?"

"You just finished Tobio's examination, and were about to sign the report."

"Yes, I think I remember now." Allison babbled. She looked down at the table and saw the clipboard with the examination results filled in, waiting for her signature. She didn't remember writing any of it, but it was in her handwriting. She glanced up at the clock. A full hour had passed since Dr. Tenma had walked in. With a little bit of trepidation, she signed the report.

"I'll file this with the school. Tobio can start class tomorrow." She added.

"Thank you very much Dr. Blake," Tenma smiled.

As they left the medical office, Tobio looked up at his father and asked, "what did you do to her dad?"

Tenma looked down at his son. "You are not to mention my use of the hypnolight, Tobio. It was necessary for your own good. Eventually I will educate the people here about what we have achieved, but for right now, it is best that they do not know the full truth. And you must be very careful not to give yourself away. Remember always that I love you very much, Tobio!


	3. Chapter 3

**Eureka Moment**

**Chapter 3**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
Eureka is a production of the SciFi network._

**Downtown Eureka**

Dr. Tenma escorted his son out of the building. It was now late morning and he decided that he would check in with Dr. Fargo about getting started working at G.D.

"Why don't you walk home Tobio? I'll meet you there later, I want to get settled into my new office at Global Dynamics."

Tobio walked away from his dad. He looked around to see if anyone was looking at him. Just before he could jump, his father yelled at him.

"I said WALK home Tobio! I don't want you showing off around town!

"Yes father." the boy replied as he shuffled his feet and headed away.

Dr. Henry Deacon was in his garage on the main street, changing the oil in Dr. Fargo's car. Henry didn't actually do that much automotive work in the garage, the part of the building facing the street was sort of a front that hid the REAL important part of the place. Behind the car lift and tool racks was a set of folding doors that led to the rear of the building, where Henry's laboratory shop was.

As Henry finished pouring the last can of motor oil into the engine, Tobio walked by. Henry smiled at him. "Hey, you're new in Eureka, aren't you son?"

"Yes mister, my dad and I just moved in yesterday." Tobio answered.

"Well I'm pleased to meet you. My name is Henry Deacon."

"I'm Tobio Tenma," the boy replied.

"Oh you must be Dr. Tenma's kid. I heard we had a new robot scientist starting at G.D. I'll have to drop in to the main building and say hello later on."

Dr. Deacon was sometimes a bit absent minded and maybe somewhat careless about mixing up his 'real' work with the garage stuff. Then again, some of his best 'inventions' were made out of all sorts of random bits mixed together. Sitting on the workbench in the auto garage was a piece of machinery that clearly didn't belong in an automobile, unless maybe it could fly.

Tobio had already made himself at home in the garage and was eyeing everything. He picked up the small gizmo rolled in over in his hands and twisted some adjustment screws. Henry took it from him carefully.

"I don't know why I left THAT out here. It's a bit too dangerous for you to fool with Tobio, sorry about that." Henry said softly.

"You had it adjusted wrong." The boy said. "I think I got it right for you".

Henry looked at the contraption. He had been trying to regulate the power flow in an ion plasma rocket engine without much success. The rockets had either failed to gain enough altitude, or blew up on the launch pad. The settings of the regulating valves interacted with each other and the right alignment was critical. The boy had just set them in positions that never occurred to Henry before.

"Tobio, would you come out back with me for a minute?" Henry asked.

The boy followed Dr. Deacon into the back of the building. Henry took the power regulator and attached it to the rocket engine that was clamped in a test stand, mounted in an explosion proof test chamber at the back of the room. The chamber was made of steel walls several inches thick, and had a single explosion proof glass window in the door. He closed the door and powered on the test chamber.

"Let's see how smart you are kid," Henry said.

The rocket engine started up in the test stand. Henry increased the power output and watched the thrust indicator. It climbed quickly and reached 'red line'. The engine still ran smoothly with no sign of instability.

"What the hell?" Henry gasped. "Hey kid, what do do? The darn thing is up to 200% power, and it will probably go to 300% at this rate!"

"I'm sorry, mister. I thought that was a puzzle and I saw how to solve it," Tobio sobbed.

Dr. Deacon bent his legs to stoop down so he could look the boy in the eyes.

"I'm not mad at you son. You figured out in a few seconds what I had been trying to get right all week! Are you a rocket scientist or something?"

"No. I'm a r..," Tobio started to say.

"TOBIO!" Dr. Tenma roared. "So there you are! I thought I told you to go home and wait for me"

The tall scientist barged into the garage and grabbed his son by the arm.

"You must be Dr. Tenma." Henry Deacon said. "That's quite a smart boy you have there. He just solved my problem of adjusting a four dimensional flux regulator in about five seconds. I had tried to get it right for over a week."

Tenma extended his free hand. "I'm happy to meet you, er?"

"I'm Dr. Henry Deacon. I do some work here repairing autos, but mostly I'm G.D.'s mechanical genius. I build most of the prototype gizmos for the engineering staffs here."

Henry wiped some oil and grease off his right hand and shook Tenma's in greeting.

"You're sure that Tobio wasn't causing you any trouble?" Tenma asked.

"Like I said, he just walked in here and solved a problem that I was stuck on. He can hang out here anytime he likes as far as I'm concerned."

"Well, we'll see about that. He starts school tomorrow at Tesla, I expect he'll be too busy with schoolwork to hang out in town, but we'll see." Tenma shot back.

Father and son walked out of the garage, hand in hand and headed home.

**S.A.R.A.H.**

Later that day Jack Carter returned home to find Dr. Allison Blake and her son Kevin already home.

"Hello Jack how was your day?" Allison greeted her lover with a kiss.

"Rather normal, after yesterday. I mostly handled rather trivial issues around town. And you?"

"Rather strange actually. I meet the Dr. Tenma that you mentioned to me yesterday. He came into my medical office today with his son for an examination. For the life of me, I can't remember how that exam went. I do remember doing the paperwork. I guess it was rather boringly routine."

"What do you think of Tenma's son, Tobio? When I met him yesterday, there was something weird about him that I just couldn't place." Carter asked.

"Now that you mention it... Dr. Tenma tried to talk me out of examining the the boy. He said he had medical records from their previous physician. I told him I was required to exam the boy, and he gave in. Only now, I can't remember a thing about that examination." Allison replied.

"Well anyway, he starts school at Tesla tomorrow." She said looking at Kevin.

"Hey Kevin, you'll probably run into this Tobio Tenma. Do try to make him comfortable at school, won't you." she added.

"Yeah, and if there is anything weird about him, let me know." Jack added.

**Tesla School , next day**

Dr. Tenma straightened Tobio's bow tie. The boy was dressed in a pair of long slacks and a button down shirt. Most of his red boots were hidden under the legs of his pants. Tenma walked his son up to the school entrance. He bent down to face the boy, and put his hands on the lad's shoulders.

"Now you behave yourself in school Tobio. Remember your place, and don't forget what we discussed about showing off. You are to act like a child your age."

"Yes father," Tobio sighed.

"OK, then. Have a good day in class, and I'll be here when you get out."

"Yes, Dad," The boy smiled.

Tenma waited till his son had walked into the school building before turning around and heading toward Global Dynamics.

Once inside the building, Tobio found himself surrounded by a number of students. Kevin Blake was among them. Kevin was about a half a head taller than Tobio.

"Hi, I'm Kevin Blake, you must be the new kid, Tenma, right?" Kevin said.

"Yes, I'm Tobio Tenma, I'm starting school here today," Tobio replied.

"You'll like it here Tobio. We compete with each other a lot, but we also give each other a hand when necessary. The teachers here are the best in the country. You're really lucky to be here." Kevin told him.

"Will you be my friend?" Tobio asked Kevin.

"Sure! Hey, I live with my mom and Sheriff Carter in S.A.R.R.A.H.. Why don't you come by after school some time and I'll show you some of my inventions." Kevin said.

"Sure, but what's Sarrah?" Tobio asked.

"HA! Kevin laughed. SARRAH is the computer that runs our house. The place used to be a cold war bunker, but it was converted into a residence. Sometimes we call the place SARRAH after the computer that runs it. Sarrah has a mind of her own, she's sorta like a robot, but without a body."

"Really? I'd like to meet her!" Tobio said.

"Well, you will. Right now, let's get you started in school, follow me and we'll find out what classes you're in"

Kevin walked Tobio over to the principle's office where he was given his class room assignments. Principle Edison walked the boy over to his home room, and wished him luck with his first day at the school.

**Global Dynamics**

As Dr. Tenma walked into his office he was greeted by another man who had been waiting for him at his desk.

"Hello Uma, I've been expecting you."

Tenam stared at the man for a few seconds before recognition set in.

"Zane Donovan, you scoundrel!" Tenma barked.

"Ah, so you DO remember me. And look who's calling the kettle black! You almost got away with that little bit you pulled at the Institute. Clever of you to sweep the affair under the rug and run away to America with the evidence. Or did you think I wouldn't figure it out?" Zane smirked.

"Don't threaten me Zane. You're just an amateur hacker, and a petty thief. If you know what's good for you, you'll keep out of my way. I've planned this way too long to be stopped by the likes of you!" Tenma scowled.

"I'll just bid my time Tenma. Sooner or later you, or your so called son will slip up and I'll have you just where I want you!" Zane Donovan turned his back on Dr. Tenma and walked out of the office.


	4. Chapter 4

**Eureka Moment**

**Chapter 4**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
Eureka is a production of the SciFi network._

**Global Dynamics, and a flashback for Tenma**

Dr. Tenma stroked his beard and thought. He tried to remember the first time he had laid eyes on Zane Donovan. The whole turn of events flashed back to him in the back of his mind...

**_Tenma's flashback..._**

It was almost a decade ago. He was newly married to his wife Hoshie, and his first born son was barely a toddler. He wasn't the head of the Institute of Science back then, just another engineer-scientist working with what then were primitive robots. The science of artificial intelligence was not as advanced as it was now. He had been invited to represent the IOS at a convention being held by Global Dynamics in Eureka. Tenma was one of many scientists in attendance, and there were many students there as well. Zane Donovan was an intern at G.D., assisting one of the guest speakers, a Dr. Kutcher.

Dr. Kutcher had some advanced ideas on AI, and had presented his theories at the event. Tenma remembered it now, he had been so impressed by Kutcher, that he had sought the man out after the event to get some more information out of him. Dr. Kutcher wouldn't delve much deeper into the subject than he had done during his presentation, he explained that much of his work was still theoretical, and hadn't yet been proven. Zane Donovan had done an admirable job assisting the research scientist in his presentation, and Tenma had been impressed with Donovan's own knowledge in AI and robotics. Later, Tenma therefore sought Zane out, and followed him into a computer lab in G.D.'s public research presentation center. Zane was too engrossed in his attention to the computer monitor to notice Tenma, but the Dr. saw what he was doing. Zane had hacked into Kutcher's office computer and had downloaded all of the man's research data. He copied it all onto a USB thumb drive and pocketed it.

Tenma was outraged. Kutcher deserved credit for his hard work, and this sneaky little thief was probably trying to steal it for his own purposes. Tenma left the lab after Zane had finished. He hid in the shadows and waited for Zane to walk out of the lab. Tenma removed a small flashlight like device from his pocket and shined it in Zane's face. The sparkling colorful light dazzled Donovan, leaving him in a trance like state where he couldn't move. Tenma stuck his hand into Zane's pocket and removed the flash drive, which he then put into his own pocket. He propped Zane up against the wall and left him there. Zane would wake up in a few minutes without any memory of what happened after he had left the computer lab.

Tenma forgot about the incident until he was back at the IOS a week later. He sat down in his office chair and felt the bulge in his rear pants pocket. He had intended to throw that thumb drive out, but suddenly his curiosity got the better of him. He inserted the drive into his computer and started to read Kutcher's private research data. It was a Eureka moment for him. What had seemed impossible just a few weeks ago, suddenly made perfect sense. Kutcher was a genius.

Over the next several years, Tenma worked himself ragged trying to perfect his own work on AI using Kutcher's theories and ground work to build upon. Kutcher still had not yet published the results of his research, and Zane had gone on with other projects. Tenma's obsession with robotic AI reached insane proportions, and he spent less and less time at home with his family. Each prototype robot that he constructed got closer to having perfect self awareness and independent thought. He gained respect among his colleagues at the Institute of Science, and was selected as its new head when the now former director retired. However, Tenma's obsession with perfecting robots took a toll on his own life. Hoshie Tenma quietly packed up and left him. Uma Tenma did what he could to raise his son by himself, but his work always won out, and the boy suffered for it.

Dr. Tenma was nearing the completion of what would be his perfect robot. Its AI was a masterpiece, fully self aware, and capable of independent thought and creativity. It was powered by a 100,000 HP fusion power plant and was capable of all sorts of feats of strength and self defense. Its construction would herald its designer's fame. But Tenma's obsession had been noticed by the IOS board of directors, and they feared for his sanity. The board voted to cancel the construction of Tenma's super robot, behind their leader's back.

Just as Tenma was about to complete his project, Zane Donovan had been invited by the IOS to take a look at a problem with a computer engineering project. Zane had accepted the offer because he knew that Tenma was now the head of the IOS. He also knew Tenma was making great advances in robot AI, and he had his suspicions about just how he had been able to do this. He hoped to do some detective work in his free time. Donovan was now a junior programmer at Global Dynamics in Eureka. Zane was on probation thanks to a hacking incident where he had been accused of committing fraud in a scandal involving the stock market. During his brief stay at the IOS he had managed to find out about what Dr. Tenma had been up to since they had last met. Zane saw the results of Tenma's work on AI, and recognized that a good chunk of his underlying theories were the same as Kutcher's unpublished private work. He realized that it was Tenma that had ended up with Kutcher's files, and had put the information to use for his own ends.

Tenma secretly completed the super robot and was powering it up in the lab late at night. Zane had hidden himself in the lab, waiting to catch him in the act. From his hiding spot he could see the robot lying on the operating table. It was merely the size of a young child, not quite yet in its teens. Zane glanced at the robot and at Tenma. Dr. Tenma started the procedures to bring his creation to life. The small robot lying on the work table flinched and slowly opened its eyes. It lifted its body off the operating table, sat up, and slowly attempted to stand on its own two feet. Tenma called to the android.

"Come here son." The child like android then slowly walked toward Dr Tenma. Tenma picked the robot up and carried it over his shoulders out of the lab.

Zane waited until Dr. Tenma had left the lab before he removed himself from his hiding spot. Something seemed rather strange. Why was Tenma's super robot constructed in the form of a young boy about the same age as Tenma's own son? Before leaving the lab, Zane made use of the computer to do a quick search. He looked for any data on Tenma or his family, and struck pay dirt in the form of a police traffic report involving a fatal accident. He also found a death certificate that matched the victim in the accident report.

It was obvious to Tenma that the board of directors at the IOS would press for his removal as the head of the institution. There was no way he could hid the completion of his super robot project, the power he had just used to activate the android had already been recorded by the power plant. It was a risk that he had needed to take. He decided to make a fresh start elsewhere rather then face dismissal by the board of directors, and possibly ruin his reputation. Tenma thought over his options and sent his resume to Dr. Fargo at Global Dynamics. He wasn't too surprised when he was contacted for an interview. If they would hire a thieving punk hacker like Zane, they would certainly offer a high position to a man with his credentials, even if he had left with a small black cloud over his head. It would be necessary for him to hack into the medical examiner's computer to remove some reports, and to cover up a few of his tracks here and there.

Tenma took his super robot with him under disguise. His mind was still under stress from the grief that he had been through with the loss of his family, caused by his obsession for his work. He vowed to make a change in his life in Eureka, but he also wanted to show the fools at the IOS that he had been right all along. That would take some time, he had to carefully set things in motion. The people at Global Dynamics would accept him. It would work out.

Zane Donovan competed his brief assignment at the IOS, and returned to Eureka. Upon his return, he did his usual hacking to find any unusual activity going on at G.D. and discovered that Dr. Tenma was being offered a position to head up the robotics group that Dr. Fargo was putting together. Zane would be ready for him when he arrived at Eureka.

**_End of Tenma's flashback_**

Tenma looked up at the clock. My God, he'd been day dreaming. It was nearly time to meet Tobio at school. He wanted to be there when the boy had finished class for the day. Too much was riding on everything going perfect with him. Tenma walked out the main door of the G.D. main building and started walking toward the Tesla school.

**Tesla School**

The Tesla school provided the perfect environment for its scholars. Each day was divided into three two hour periods, with an hour for lunch. Classes were an hour and forty five minutes long, with fifteen minutes for the students to transit between classes, with some time to access their lockers. The class load each student would carry each semester would on average be five to six academic classes, and one or two extras. Each class would meet between one to three sessions a week.

Tobio found himself enrolled in classes in history, math, science, philosophy, and art. He was also required to take one session of physical education ("gym") each week. Today, he was introduced to his math, science and art instructors. He quickly became the "teacher's pet" in both his math and science classes, he came up with the answers to all the questions the instructors popped to the class before anyone else.

The art class was a different story. The boy seemed to have no idea at all what art was about. The class was asked to draw free hand using pencils, their interpretation of a vase with flowers sitting on the teacher's desk. Tobio's drawing resembled an X-ray view of the plants, showing all of the functional parts. His details were correct, but he failed to catch the beauty of the flowers.

When the three o'clock bell rang to signal the end of classes for the day, Tobio was almost glad that his first day of class was over. He was even happy to see his father waiting for him outside the school.

"So how was your first day at school, Tobio?" Dr. Tenma asked the boy.

"Math and science were a blast. Art was a drag. I just don't understand what it's all about." Tobio said looking down and scuffing his red boots along the sidewalk.

"There is more to life than just being smart, Tobio. You need to understand beauty, art and music. Thats the stuff that makes being human different that other forms of life." Tenma told him. "Please try to understand the world around you so you can see the beauty in it, then you will understand art."

The two of them walked back to Tenma's office at Global Dynamics. You'll stay with me for a few hours and we'll go home together, OK Tobio?" Dr. Tenma said.

"Sure dad." the boy answered.

**Global Dynamics**

Dr. Tenma and Tobio entered the G.D. building and were immediately confronted by Zane Donovan. The computer wizard smiled as he looked down at Tobio.

"Hello son," Zane said affectionately, reaching out to pat the boy on the shoulder.

Tema pushed Zane's hand away before he could touch the boy.

"I think that answers my question." Zane smiled.

Tenma reached into his pocket and withdrew a flashlight like device. Before he could point it at Zane, the savvy nerd had taken a pair of sunglasses out of his shirt pocket and put them on. Tenma shined the colored beam of light at Donovan, but it had no effect.

"The cross polarized lenses in these glasses render your L.O.O.K.E.R. Device ineffective, doctor. Otherwise, its an interesting bit of technology. At one setting, it renders a person in a trance like state for a period of time, in another setting the device leaves one open to suggestions." Zane laughed walking away.

"Tobio, I need you to avoid that man whenever possible. He will be trouble for us." Tenma told the boy.

"Is he a bad person?" Tobio asked.

"In a way. His intentions are quite selfish. He will do everything he can to prevent us from fulfilling our destiny." Tenma answered.


	5. Chapter 5

**Eureka Moment**

**Chapter 5**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
Eureka is a production of the SciFi network._

**Global Dynamics**

Zane Donovan knocked on Dr. Fargo's office door and entered without waiting for Douglas to reply.

"Hello Zane, why don't you just barge in?" Fargo asked, after the factly.

"Why did you hire that weasel, Tenma? The guy stinks like week old fish." Zane blurted out.

"Coming from you Zane, that's quite brash. Tenma is one of Japan's foremost experts on Artificial Intelligence. He's had great success with the development of robotic assistants that are now widely used in that country for the care of the elderly and infirmed. On what basis can you insult him like that?" Fargo demanded.

"Did you ever hear of a Dr. Kutcher? He was the real inspirational thinker in the development of the kind of AI that you are giving Tenma credit for. I should know all about that, I was working with Kutcher when he was here, before you became head of G.D. It took me a long time to recover the memory of the incident, but when we had that AI convention here years ago, Tenma used a L.O.O.K.E.R. on me and stole a flash drive containing all of Kutcher's research that I had downloaded from his private files. That flash drive was going to be put in the storage vault at Kutcher's request."

"Do you have proof of that?" Fargo asked.

"You damn well know I don't. Tenma covered up his tracks very well. I've got more on him that I can't yet prove. He covered up the death of his son. The guy might have even murdered his own kid for all I know. Just a few months ago when you sent me over to the Japan IOS to look at a small computer problem they had, I did some spying on Tenma. I hacked into the Takondanobaba police department computer and found a fatal accident report involving a Tobio Tenma. I also found a coroner's report and a death certificate on the same individual. The later two documents have disappeared from their respective files. I also looked at Tenma's research papers and at some of the AI software he was developing at the IOS. Large sections of those are very similar to Kutcher's work. But all of this evidence only exists here," Zane said pointing to his head.

"Without proof, I can do nothing Zane. All you have are suspicions." Fargo replied.

"Officially maybe. I was in Tenma's lab when he finished the super robot project that was the crux of his conflict with the IOS board of governors. They canceled the project on Tenma, and pulled all of the funding; but Tenma went on with it anyway for months afterward. When I was there he finished the robot and activated it. I saw that robot, and it was the spitting image of his son! I don't know if he had the boy killed to cover up the robot project, or if he changed the scope of that project after his son died by accident. In any case, by covering up his son's death, he was able to sneak out of Japan with that robot!" Zane explained.

"You are forgetting that Dr. Blake examined the boy before he was admitted to the Tesla School, Tobio Tenma is no robot." Fargo said.

"Are you REALLY sure, Fargo? Tenma has that L.O.O.K.E.R. gizmo. I bet he hypnotized Dr. Blake into thinking she examined the boy and into filling out the medical report. That's how he stole Kutcher's files from me. The one drawback to that L.O.O.K.E.R. ray, is that the memory erasure effects are not permanent. It takes a while, sometimes years, but you DO eventually remember what was blocked by the ray. I might be able to find a way to accelerate the reversal of the ray's effect and we can get Dr. Blake to confirm my suspicions. Meanwhile, I'm going to try and get some proof on my own that Tobio isn't Tenma's flesh and blood son." Zane answered.

**Tesla School, Outdoor Athletic Field**

Today was Tobio's first Physical Education class. His father had made sure he was prepared, and he had got the boy the required gym uniform; a pair of cotton shorts, a tee shirt in the school colors, a pair of canvas athletic shoes and heavy cotton socks.

The class lined up on the field and their instructor started things going with some in-place exercises.

Sgt. Edward Brown, was the PE instructor. He actually had been a gunnery Sergeant in the marines, and the students sometimes addressed him as "Sarge". He addressed the class as soon as they had lined up.  
"OK, as usual we will start off with push ups. Let's see how many you guys can do eh? Who's going to be the last one to give up?"

The class dropped to the ground and started the exercise.

Mitch Fargo, was one of the more athletic students. He was on the swim team and the football team, and excelled in any sport he put his mind to. He was also a top student and would have his pick of college when he graduated. Mitch always was the last to stop with the push up competition. Mitch was a distant relative to Dr. Douglas Fargo, he was the son of the director's second cousin who worked in the printing plant for the town's only newspaper. It was a fully automated printer that could generate high quality typesets under computer control. His father, Mark Fargo ran the print shop all by himself, most of the equipment was his design, though Henry Deacon had done the actual construction.

One by one the students arms gave out, and they lay down on their stomachs, or sat down and watched their fellow students keep going. Finally, there were only two of them left, Mitch and Tobio. Mitch was on the ground behind Tobio, and he kept an eye on his competition as he mentally counted down his own repetitions. The two boys had reached 200 push ups each and neither showed any signs of slowing. Mitch's arm muscles were starting to burn, but he wouldn't let a kid less than half his weight show him up. Tobio just kept on going, like a machine.

Zane Donovan stood outside the fence, watching. He had been recording the push up competition between the two boys on his Blackberry's video camera. This was getting interesting.

Finally Mitch Fargo could go no more. His mind was willing, but his flesh failed him. He fell to the ground, panting. Tobio just kept on going, not even winded. He was waiting for the instructor to tell him it was OK to stop!

Sarge called out to Tobio. "Hey you! New kid. You can stop now!"

Tobio got up and stood at attention facing the instructor.

"What's your name kid?" He asked.

"I'm Tobio Tenma. I started school here yesterday.

"Well, Tobio Tenma, that was very impressive. You must be a robot or something." Sarge joked.

"Well I am a ro..." Tobio started to say, but Zane interrupted by yelling through the fence at the instructor.  
"Hey Sarge!"

"What do you want Zane?" Ed Brown walked toward the fence towards Zane Donovan. To say that there was a little bad blood between Donovan and Brown would have been putting it lightly. Zane had been a real prankster as a kid, and his reputation as a draft dodger didn't sit well with the ex marine.

"Listen Ed. There's something fishy going on with Tenma's kid. I'm doing my own investigation on his old man. I think the guy is up to something."

"Zane you're crazy. The kid is in great shape, he just did over 250 sit ups nonstop and wasn't even winded, but to me he looks just a normal kid. I don't need you hanging around here acting like some kind of pervert. Play detective at G.D. if you want, but keep away from my students or you'll have ME to deal with!"

**Global Dynamics, Military Aeronautics Division**

Ethan Edison was Global Dynamics aeronautics design expert. For the past few years he had been working on perfecting an electric propulsion system for miniature drone aircraft that would be both powerful and silent. Recently Henry Deacon was working on an ion plasma rocket engine that had showed some promise for other purposes. Ethan had started work on an air breathing version of Henry's rocket, in other words and electric jet engine. Edison was now ready to test his latest prototype drone aircraft. It had a unique computer system that combined a sophisticated auto pilot with a programmable navigation computer and a rudimentary AI controller. Once programmed with the mission parameters, his drone would be able to adapt to changes and self adjust its programming to complete the mission. At least, that's what he hoped his design would be able to do.

Ethan had been working hard on getting the drone ready for its first test flight. Global Dynamics had its scaled down air force base for prototype drone aircraft, and a testing range complete with mock targets. The facility was located several miles away from town on the other side of a small wooded area beyond the Tesla school athletics field. It was common enough for the test aircraft to be seen by Tesla students, but the aircraft had never got close enough to be any danger to the school or the town. Everyone in Eureka was used to seeing top secret aircraft being tested, and everyone in town also had top secret clearances. Such was life in "Geeksville USA".

At the moment Edison was getting ready to test the latest prototype at the G.D. proving range. He had mock targets set up in the range, and the drone was fitted with low power versions of the prototype laser weapons systems. They would make for some spectacular fireworks, but shouldn't cause any real damage. The main idea of the test was to verify that the navigation and control systems functioned and that the AI systems could adapt to some mock anti-aircraft fire.

**Dr. Tenma's office**

It was late in the afternoon. Tenma had been reviewing the data for all recent AI and robotic projects that Global Dynamics had been involved in over the past five years. The two most recent projects that he had studied in the greatest details were S.A.R.A.H. and Andy.

Douglas Fargo appeared in the doorway. He knocked and cleared his throat.

"Please come in Dr. Fargo," Tenma replied without looking up.

Dr. Fargo entered the office.  
"I've been talking to Zane Donovan." Fargo began.

Before Fargo could get to the next sentence Tenma cut him off.  
"Why am I not surprised? Don't tell me you believe the lies that he has been telling you about me."

"There seems to be a difference of opinion about who stole what from Dr. Kutcher. Zane has accused you of making off with Kutcher's work and basing your discoveries on his. I already know that you have accused Zane of trying to do the same. However Zane has a very good explanation of why he had access to Kutcher's work. Zane was Kutcher's assistant. He was cataloging and storing the man's work. Kutcher didn't trust computer networks, though Zane did make use of ours in storing the man's research. Kutcher insisted that all file transfers be done with physical media." Fargo explained.

"I will admit that I might have over reacted to catching Zane with the man's data. I admired Kutcher, and I also admit that I wanted to know more about what he was trying to do. After I caught Zane with the flash drive that he accused me of stealing, I did quickly look over some of the files out of curiosity. However, I didn't make any copies, and I threw that flash drive in the fire. I did not steal Kutcher's research. I will admit that being exposed to a few of his ideas might have altered my direction of thinking somewhat, however." Tenma admitted.

"Very well Doctor. I'll chalk this one up as a draw between the two of you. Not having the exact text of Kutcher's work, I can't comment on your possible plagiarism of his research. And since Zane doesn't have any copies of it as well, at least none that I am aware of, he can't prove anything either. However Zane has made a more serious accusation against you. He claims that you covered up the death of your son, and possibly even had the boy killed." Fargo replied.

"What! Now that is insane, Dr. Fargo. You've seen Tobio yourself."

"Zane would have me believe that Tobio is the robot that you were trying to complete at the Institute of Science, over the objection of their board of governors. He thinks that you were hiding your son's demise, so you could sneak the completed robot out of the country as your son."

"Do you believe that? Your own Dr. Blake examined my son and found him to be a perfectly healthy child." Tenma said.

"Yes, I know that. Zane can be a bit crazy at times, Dr. Tenma. I'm sorry I had to confront you with this, but look at the position I'm being put into."

"Yes, I suppose you're right. Your job does have it's disadvantages."

"Good afternoon then, Dr. Tenma. I think the best thing would be to try and keep you and Zane as far apart as possible." Fargo left the office. He figured he'd have to chew Zane out the next time he saw him. After speaking to Tenma, he was sure that Zane had gone off the deep end this time in his tilting at windmills.


	6. Chapter 6

**Eureka Moment**

**Chapter 6**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
Eureka is a production of the SciFi network._

**Global Dynamics, Military Aeronautics Proving Grounds**

Ethan Edison had the prototype for his miniature drone prepped and ready to fly. It's fuel cells were fully charged, and the mock weapons systems had been adjusted for the test. The drone was equipped with a laser system that would be powerful enough to take out targets on the ground, but for this test the AI systems were programmed to limit the weapons output to just a few percent. The test flight would involve registering hits against mock targets set up on the proving range.

Ethan used the remote control to taxi the drone to the runway which was located on the far side of the proving grounds. General Mansfield was in his staff car to witness the first test of the prototype.

"OK, General, I'm going to commit the aircraft to its programming now." Ethan yelled over to the staff car. The aircraft was now lined up on the runway waiting to take off. Ethan walked over to the General with the remote control device in his hands.  
"Would you like the honors, Sir?" Ethan asked, holding out the control box.

"Sure, why not? What do I do?" the general asked.

"Just press the red button over there." Edison told him.

The general pressed the button and the aircraft started its program. It rolled down the runway and took off. The electric plasma jet engines were almost completely silent.  
"Looks great!" General Mansfield said. "Now what?"

"She's going to execute her test program."

The drone flew over the mock targets once and then turned back. It came down low and started to make a strafing run. It's laser fired several times, making hits on each of the targets. The targets had laser sensors inside to record each hit. The results were tabulated on Ethan's hand held computer which he held out to show the General.

"It's looking real good, Dr. Edison. You've done a wonderful job." The General patted him on the back.

"The aircraft will now come in for a landing." Ethan said.

The drone turned to make a landing, but at the last minute it seemed to have a change of plans. It turned and flew over the General's car, then turned around and came back. On the second pass it fired its laser at the car hitting the trunk. Sparks flew and smoke rose from where the vehicle was hit.

"That damn thing fired the laser at FULL POWER!" The General cried out. "It's going nuts!"

The drone made another pass and disappeared over the woods.

"It's heading towards town!" Ethan gasped.

"Get in, we'll follow it," General Mansfield told him.

The two of them got into the car and headed in the direction of the drone, into downtown Eureka.

**Henry Deacon** was outside of his garage polishing the hood of his truck. He heard a strange buzzing sound overhead and looked up just in time to see Edison's drone overhead, turning down main street to make a strafing run. The drone fired its laser repeatedly on the street, barely avoiding parked cars and pedestrians. The aircraft then fired it's laser through the window of Cafe Diem, shattering the glass into shards. The aircraft then turned and headed in the direction of the Tesla School.

**Tobio Tenma **was the last student to head toward the building. He had been given the job of collecting all of the gym equipment after the Physical Education class had finished their baseball practice. He'd been in left field looking for a few baseballs that had been lost in the weeds by the outfield fence. The task of cleanup crew was usually given to the new students, this time poor Tobio had to do it all by himself. He didn't mind though, as he quickly finished and was now carrying a large sack with the equipment back to the building. He was the only person in the field when the drone came overhead.

The aircraft zeroed in on Tobio and started a dive. As it passed overhead it fired its laser. The beam hit a wet patch of grass just a few feet from the boy causing a steam explosion that released a cloud of vapor. Tobio looked up and saw the drone diving again. This time it was truly out of control and was headed straight for the school building. The drone was about the size of small car, if it hit the building it could cause some real damage and possibly hurt someone inside.

Tobio dropped the bag and stared at the incoming aircraft. It would crash trough the windows of the school library in about ten seconds. He took one final look around him. He was alone in the school athletic field, there wasn't anyone in sight. Just him, and the drone.

About a mile away, the General's staff car was fast approaching. The drone had passed overhead in route to the school grounds. Ethan Edison followed the path of his aircraft using a pair of binoculars. He saw the drone zeroing in on the school's upper floor, about to crash into the building. Suddenly something zoomed up from the ground to meet the runaway plane. The red and blue streak reached the drone and diverted its path. The two objects flew over the building and disappeared into the distance, heading for the wooded area behind the school.

Tobio walked away from the downed aircraft. It had made a hard landing breaking off both wings as it clipped the trees in the woods between the proving grounds and the school. Tobio walked out of the woods and back to the school building. His clothes were now dirty and torn. He smelled of hydraulic fluid and ozone.

Tobio picked up the bag of gym equipment and walked into the building. He dragged the bag inside and left it in the gymnasium equipment office. Sgt. Brown saw Tobio enter.  
"Took you a little while didn't it?" He said. Then he noticed how dirty the boy was, and that his gym uniform was torn.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"I ran into an airplane!" Tobio told him. The boy went to his locker and changed out of the torn gym uniform and into his school clothes.

Sgt. Brown scratched his head. He'd get to the bottom of this later.

**Ethan Edison** and the General found the remains of the drone in the woods. It had been pushed out of the sky and was forced down into the woods where it flew between a stand of trees snapping both wings clean off. Ethan and the General located the fuselage. He pulled out several pairs of latex gloves from his pocket and handed one to the General. They both gloved their hands and carefully lifted the largest part of the plane's body. Ethan was inspecting it when he noticed a dirty pair of hand prints on the bottom. They were small prints, about the size of a ten year olds hands. He also found a small bit of cloth stuck in a jagged bit of metal on the wreckage. It was part of a Tesla School gym shirt.

**Dr. Tenma** met his son at the school gate as usual The two of them walked back to Global Dynamics. Tenma noticed that Tobio's face and arms were covered with a thin film of oil.

"What happened to you?" he asked.

"I guess I never had a chance to clean up after gym class. I had to collect the equipment from the field."

"Yes but how did you get covered with ..." Tenma felt a patch of the fluid covering Tobio's face with his finger and smelled it. "hydraulic fluid?"

"I ran into an airplane."

"You WHAT! How do you run into an airplane in the school athletic field?"

"It came from over the woods and fired a laser at me. Then it headed for the school building. It would have crashed into the school, so I sorta pushed it into the woods."

Tenma face palmed and groaned. He envisioned Tobio flying from the school yard and grabbing onto the runaway aircraft to force it down into the woods.

"Did anyone see you?"

"I don't think so. The schoolyard was empty. I walked back from the woods."

Tenma sighed with a bit or relief.  
"OK son, I guess you did what you had to do. Let's go home and get you cleaned up."

**Zane Donovan** threw his phone down onto the ground and stomped on it.  
"God damn piece of crap!" he muttered. Of all times for the !%$! camera to fail! Just when he had the goods on Tenma. He had been walking by the far corner of the school athletic field when the drone aircraft had made a beeline for the upper story of the building. Tobio Tenma was alone in the field for some reason. Just as the aircraft was about to smash into the building the kid flew up into the sky and intercepted it. He'd caught it on the cell phone's camera, except the GD flash card failed to record the file. Son of a bitch! He knew he was right about Tenma, but he STILL had no proof.

Zane drove back into town and was shocked. He parked his car, got out, and walked along the main drag. Main street was a mess, there were several craters where the drone had blasted its laser into the roadway, and the front window of the Cafe was now being boarded up until new glass could be installed. Dr. Deacon walked up to Zane.  
"What a mess! It seems Edison still has some computer problems with that drone." he said.

"You think?" Zane agreed.

"I heard they just recovered the wreckage from the woods. Lucky the drone avoided the school at the last minute." Henry said.

"Wasn't luck." Zane told him. "Someone got to it in the nick of time and shoved it out of the way."

"Huh?"

"Never mind. You wouldn't believe me anyway." Zane sighed.


	7. Chapter 7

**Eureka Moment**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
Eureka is a production of the SciFi network._

**Chapter 7**

**The Wreckage** of Ethan Edison's drone was towed into the rear of Dr. Henry Deacon's garage. Deputy Andy carried most of the larger pieces out of the woods single handed, and placed them on a flat bed truck. Sheriff Jack Carter supervised the operation, taking inventory of each part. He and Andy repeated the operation in reverse when the wreckage arrived in town at the garage.  
"Do you think you'll be able to figure out what went wrong?" Jack asked Henry.

"I'd also like to figure out what went right. The kids in the library said they saw the drone heading right at them, and they ran out of the library in mass seconds before the aircraft was going to smash into the building. They then heard it pass overhead. All of them said there was no way that it could have changed course in time to miss, yet somehow it climbed in the last seconds to fly over the building and end up in the woods." Henry said.

**Jo Lupo **entered the garage carrying a clipboard.  
"I've got some preliminary information here. Ethan found two clues when he and the General were first on the crash scene. Here's a photo he took of the hand prints he found on the bottom of the aircraft. They're a child's size, probably a ten year olds. He also found a scrap of cloth caught in a ragged edge of metal. There was enough of it to identify it as being from a Tesla School gym shirt. There was a bit of the school logo in the scrap; and from the size of the lettering, weave, and other hints found in the police laboratory workup, this was a size small shirt. I can tell you that there were only two or three students in the current class that wear a size small, and only one of them had PE class during the time period that the drone went ape shit. That would be Tobio Tenma."

"I'm willing to bet his hand prints would match those found on the wreckage." Zane said, walking into the garage.

"What are you guys implying here?" Carter asked. "Did this kid somehow sabotage the drone?"

"I don't think so." Henry puzzled. "I think you're trying to tell me that he got to the crash site first and touched the wreckage before Ethan got there."

"Hah! You got that right!" Zane laughed. "Only I'm saying he got there at the SAME TIME as the drone did."

"He was in the woods when the drone crashed?" Carter guessed.

"Guess again!" Zane said, poking the sheriff in the ribs.

Henry looked at the photograph of the fuselage showing the hand prints. They were on the bottom side of the aircraft along the edges of two hand hold points where the aircraft could be handled during assembly. Just the right spot to grab the thing in flight and nudge it, if you were Superman.

"What you're suggesting Zane, is crazy. Unless …." Henry thought.

"Exactly!" Zane replied.

"Forget it!" Carter said. "I think you need to find out why this thing went nuts in the first place. I'm happy enough that it didn't crash into the school, I don't care why it didn't, unless that will help you figure out why it almost did."

"Jack's right." Henry replied. "I'm going to go over the wreckage and see what I can come up with. It looks like the drone's flight computer is all here, so I should be able to figure this out."

"Zane, don't you have some work to do over at the experimental power plant?" Jo Lupo asked.

"Yeah, I guess I should get over there before I'm missed." Zane replied and sulked out of the garage.

* * *

**Doctor Alan Putzburger** checked the operation of the breeder reactor at the Nuclear Engineering unit. Global Dynamics had several projects working on safe sources of atomic energy. The breeder reactor was producing the 'starting fuel' required for the Thorium reactor nearing completion over at the experimental power plant. Putzburger had put Zane in charge of overseeing the construction. Donovan's job was mostly to double check that the technicians followed his blueprints correctly. When the time came to actually fuel and fire up the reactor, Putzburger intended to personally direct the operation.

The Liquid Fluoride Thorium reactor was inherently safe as long as the breeder cycle was balanced to operate below a critical region, something that naturally happened. It was hoped that the research being done at Global Dynamics Eureka facility would lead to a cost break through in the thermal reactor that would supply cheap and safe electrical power with a zero carbon footprint. If they succeeded, their design could cut the demand for natural gas, coal and oil now used to generate electrical power. Needless to say that the suppliers of those fuels were worried.

The experimental power plant was located on the edge of Global Dynamics property in its own building. The reactor building was a single story building simply constructed from concrete blocks, and had a simple corrugated steel roof covered with a standard roofing felt and tar covering. The reactor vessel was of a thick walled steel construction. No containment vessel was provided as the reactor was not anticipated to produce any high pressure gases or liquids. Indeed, this was the hallmark of its design.

Putzburger motioned to technician Zachery Smith who was at the reactor control screen.  
"I'm heading over to the power plant to see how that is coming along. Please keep an eye out on the fuel mixture. If we make the starting fuel too rich there might be a slight danger of a runaway reaction when we try to start up the Thorium reactor. You must keep the mixture in the green area."

"I know all about, Dr. Putzburger." Smith moaned. "I've been doing this job for months now, and everything has been perfect, right?"

"Yes it has." Alan agreed. "It's just that I'm so paranoid about getting this perfect, sorry if I keep needling your about it."

Putzburger put on his coat and walked out of the building to check on the power plant, still under construction.

**Sheriff Jack Carter** wandered over to Henry's garage after lunch to see how his examination of the drone's wreckage was coming along.  
"Hello Henry. Any luck with that drone?"

"Good afternoon Sheriff. Actually, I'm pretty much finished with my investigation. I couldn't find any mechanical failures, though I never expected to. Jo was here trying to lift some prints from two hand marks on the fuselage, you'll have to check with her, but I don't think she found anything useful. I've downloaded the log dumps from the on board computer. There were some useful 'black box' recordings as well. The failure looks like it was caused by a simple memory overflow, really something that a second year computer engineering student should have found on the first debug pass. I can't imagine even Ethan in his most absent mindedness making such a mistake, though he's less of a computer engineer and more of an aeronautical expert."

"Kinda what I'd expect myself." Jack agreed. "What did you get from the black box?"

"Ha! Zane might have been right. The drone did not auto correct itself at the last moment to miss the school. It was diverted from its flightpath by an external force that I can't account for. And get this, the application of the force vectors recorded match up perfectly if you assume that said external force was applied exactly along the fuselage where those hand prints were."

"What do you make of that?"

"I can't. And I'm not going to ask Zane for his conspiracy theories on this. I don't need another headache." Henry concluded.

* * *

"**Can I have a word with you?" **Sarge asked Tobio.

Tobio finished dressing and closed his gym locker. "What is it teacher?"

"What exactly happened two days ago? I found out yesterday that a runaway drone out of Global Dynamics made a mess of downtown before crashing into the woods. The same day you took your time after class on equipment duty, and came back looking like you were in that crash."

"I was in that crash." Tobio said.

"Now I don't understand that. You were out in the schoolyard when the drone crashed. How did you get into the woods?"

"I flew. I was holding onto the drone when it went into the woods."

Ed Brown had seen the scorch marks out in the field where the drone had fired its laser on the ground. He figured that it must have tried to attack Tobio, possibly buzzing inches over his head. The kid could have grabbed onto the lower side of it and been carried aloft. Crazy thing to do, but Tobio might have a hero streak in him.  
"Sounds like a crazy thing to do kid, but it seems you might have stopped the damn thing from causing some more damage elsewhere. I think you were lucky to come out of that without killing yourself, you remind me of myself when I was in active service." the formerly active marine replied.

* * *

**Andy** sat in Dr. Tenma's laboratory. He had his front and panels opened up and the doctor had various probe wires connected. Several oscilloscopes were connected up to him, as well as several computer monitors.  
"When was the last time you had a full diagnostic exam, Andy?" Tenma asked.

"Oh maybe a year, year and a half ago?" Andy replied.

"You mean you don't recall exactly? Is there a problem with you memory?"

"No, not at all. It's just that I've had a few examinations, usually to fix a problem, or when one of the scientists wanted to try something new out on me. Now if you mean when did I have a diagnostic examination only for the purpose of routine maintenance, that was one year, two months, six days, and 45.4 hours ago." Andy replied.

"That's better." Tenma said. "You had me worried for a moment. What we are doing now will be a full diagnostic. If you have any pending breakdowns, or weak parts about to fail, what I'm doing now will find it out before you have a problem. I'm also going to test some of your systems to see how well they actually work compared to the engineering specifications. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out that you were built better than spec."

"Neither would I." Andy replied. "I don't mean to brag, but there isn't anything that I've been asked to do which I had any problems with."

"I'm glad to hear that, Deputy. Eureka is very lucky to have you in the Sheriff's department. I'm going to start some tests now, you will probably find yourself blacking out for a while and will regain consciousness when I'm finished." Tenma told the robot.

Dr. Tenma started a control program on the computer and slowly adjusted Andy's brain levels. The Deputy drifted into a coma like state. He closed his eyes and became rigid and stiff. Tenma then started up several diagnostics. He downloaded a new background program into Andy's subconscious processors and monitored it's operation.  
"Very good." he thought. "Andy's systems are compatible with Atom's. I should be able to use Andy to perform the required tests, and if the systems work on him, I can upgrade Atom."

Tenma then injected a small amount of fluid into Andy's oil reservoir. The fluid contained microscopic nanites, self replicating machines that could transport themselves anywhere in the Robot's body to make repairs, or modifications under program control. Tenma readjusted Andy's brain levels back to normal so he would slowly regain consciousness. He disconnected all of the cables and closed Andy's panels up.

"You can wake up now, Andy," Dr. Tenma said softly.

Andy opened his eyes and smiled.  
"That was a refreshing nap. Thank you!"

Andy got up and put his uniform back on. Tenma patted him on the back.  
"Let me know if you have any strange feelings, pain, or whatever. There may be a bit of a strange reaction to the treatment I've given you. I've installed a new self repair system that your body may take some time to adjust to."

"Will do, Dr. Tenma. Can I return to my job now?"

"Certainly! Tell Sheriff Carter hello for me, won't you?"


	8. Chapter 8

**A Eureka Moment**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
Eureka is a production of the SciFi network._

**Chapter 8**

**Zachery Smith **felt the wad of brand new hundred dollar bills in his pocket. It was easy money, all he had to do was to contaminate the last batch of the starting fuel for the reactor. He wasn't too sure where the money actually came from, probably from BP or OPEC, it really didn't matter. He had met his contact on the outskirts of town along the road leading into Eureka earlier that morning, probably exactly where Jack Carter had his car problem years ago. He had received a strange text message on his personal cell phone about a week ago, and had agreed to the meeting. The man he met, was of average height, wore dark glasses that fit under his overhanging brow, and sported a mustache. The guy pulled a portable Fort Knox out of his pocket, peeled off about an inch and a half worth of bills and handed it to Zach.  
"You'll get the other half when we hear about it on the news," he was told.

Smith waited till Putzburger left the building before he carefully modified the breeder reactor's parameters. If he left it running overnight and came in early to reset things back to normal there would be just enough imbalance in the starting fuel so it wouldn't be noticed, until they started to bring the reactor up to full power. Then it would slowly start to enter an uncontrollable runaway reaction and destroy itself. The resulting accident would set back the project a few years and give the oil barons a little more time to live off their reserves.

**Kevin Blake **was showing off his research rocket in class. It was a good five feet tall, and at least six inches wide at the base.  
"I'm going to launch this from over at the Eureka proving grounds after school today." He explained to the class. "I expect to reach at least 60,000 feet, and hopefully double that. It all depends on just how efficient my motor design is. Henry Deacon has been helping me with the final assembly."

"Wow!" Tobio replied. That really looks good. "I'd sure like to watch you launch it."

Robert VanAllen, Physics teacher and rocket scientist, entered the class room and called for the students to take their seats.

"That's a nice rocket you have there Mr. Blake. Would you mind leaving it in the back of the room with the reset of the research projects? I don't appreciate any competition with my lecture." he said.

The class found their seats and VanAllen began the lesson.

"Today we will be discussing the various forms of fission reactors suitable for electric power generation. Later this week we will hopefully get to see Eureka's experimental power station starting up their new Thorium breeder reactor. This is a new design power plant that I've been told will produce electrical power more efficiently and inexpensively than anything to date. If all goes well, Dr. Alan Putzburger will demonstrate the plant to us in a few days."

**Zane Donovan **was almost finished with his final inspection of the reactor. I was almost ready to be fueled and buttoned up for its first test. Zane expected that Dr. Putzburger would soon make his final inspection, so he decided to check up on the progress in the refinement of the starting fuel. Zane used his computer terminal to open a video call to the Nuclear Engineering section.

"Hello Zane!" Zachery Smith got real close to the web cam so that Zane could see the fillings in his front teeth clearly.

"Yuck! Zack, back off will you! I can almost smell your bad breath!" Zane said.

"Sorry! I know why you're calling, Putzburger just left here himself. The final processing is being completed now. You should have your first batch of starting fuel by late tomorrow." Smith answered.

"That's good, because we are ready to start loading the Thorium fuel right now." Zane replied. "Thanks to your good work over there, we will be right on schedule."

"I can't wait to here how it goes!" Zachery cackled.

**Deputy Andy **sat in the Sheriff's office with his feet up on the desk. He was reading a catalog from the CHIEFsupply Law enforcement supply company. Jack Carter walked in and found his deputy with his nose buried in the catalog.  
"You look relaxed there, Andy. So did Dr. Tenma find you fit for another 50,000 miles or so?"

"Very funny Jack. Yeah, he said I was in good shape. He gave me a special treatment, he said he'd installed a self repairing systems mod or something. I've never felt so fine tuned before." Andy smiled.

"Well that's good. I'd hate to have my deputy falling apart at a critical moment there."

Jack looked through his schedule on the computer.  
"Seems I have a meeting over at Dr. Fargo's office in an hour. Think I'll head over there early." Jack said walking out of the building. He walked over to his Jeep, only to find the front left tire was flat.  
"Rat's!" Jack mumbled out loud.

Andy poked his head out of the door and saw Jack standing over the Jeep.  
"Hey Jack, let me give you a hand with that!"

"Sure, Thanks Andy!" Jack replied.

Carter opened the back of the Jeep and got out the tool kit. He lifted the floor panel and unbolted the clamp holding the spare tire. Then he lifted the wheel out of the back of the Jeep, and placed it on the ground. As he turned to walk toward the front of the Jeep, he saw Andy pull the hub cap off the flat tire using only his fingers. Andy then paused as if he were about to come back for the lug wrench, but instead unscrewed the five nuts by twisting them off with his left hand.

"Showing off a bit, aren't we Deputy?" Jack asked. "You usually use the lug wrench."

"Yeah, you're right. My hands suddenly felt a bit stronger than usual and I just found out I could do it without using any tools. Weird." Andy replied.

Jack rolled the new wheel over to his Deputy. Andy then surprised both of them by lifting the corner of the Jeep up with his right hand from under the top of the fender. While holding the vehicle off the ground he removed the damaged wheel with his left hand, and then pushing it aside, he grabbed the replacement wheel and slapped it in place. Andy then lowered the Jeep to the ground and twisted the five lug nuts into place.

Carter was about to remove the Jack from the back of the Jeep when he saw what his Deputy had just done.  
"Now you are really showing off. Feeling your Wheaties there?" Jack asked.

"That was weird. I just lifted the Jeep with one hand and held it up like it weighed nothing. I know I'm much stronger than most men, being a robot and all, but I suddenly felt like I had twice my normal strength. I must have been out of tune for a long time and that Dr. Tenma really did a good job adjusting me." Andy guessed.

"I don't know. Maybe we should have Henry check you out. He's pretty familiar with your systems too." Carter suggested.

**Tobio met his father** in his office after school let out. He had ran most of the way because he wanted to go see Kevin launch his rocket.  
"Dad, can we drive over to the proving grounds? Kevin Blake is going to launch his research rocket in about a half an hour."

Tenma sighed as he looked at his watch. "Why don't you run over there without me, son. I need to finish up on some paper work. If I can, I'll grab one of the electric cars to meet you there."

"OK!" Tobio yelled as he ran out of the office. As Tobio ran out of the rear exit to the Global Dynamics research building he looked around to see if he could spot the class on their way to the proving grounds where the miniature research rocket launch pad was. The small wooded area where the drone aircraft had crashed a few days ago lay between the proving grounds and the Tesla school and the students would normally walk around it. Tobio had left the school in the other direction to reach his father's office, and he was now taking the third leg of the triangle to reach the launch site. In the distance he now saw Keven just starting to set up the rocket. Tobio knew he could get the faster, but his father had warned him against using his abilities in public so he continued to run toward his friends.  
"Hey Kevin!" Tobio yelled. "Wait for me!"

Nobody heard him, and the students had already moved further away from the launch pad. Kevin had already started the countdown.  
"Rats!" Tobio thought as he circled around to get far enough away from the launch pad, just in case.

The rocket sat on the launch pad in the middle of the grounds between Tobio and the students, who had taken up a safe position inside of the control shed.  
"Well I have a good view of the rocket from here, even if I'm not by my friends." Tobio thought.

Kevin's rocket rose off the pad slowly. It veered towards the direction of the school, gaining altitude. It's flight so far seemed perfect.

Inside of the control shed Kevin was tracking the rocket. His research missile was sending back a radio transmission that gave it's altitude, location, speed, and vital engine parameters. It all looked good on his end as well.

Suddenly, something in the vehicle failed. The rocket lost power for a moment and the nose dropped toward the ground. The engine regained power and the rocket started heading toward the ground. It looked like it was going to smash down on the roof of the Tesla school. Kevin tried to shut down the engines from his remote control, but the rocket didn't respond to his commands. It disappeared from sight over the wooded area.

Out of sight of his friends, Tobio saw the rocket turn downward. It was plunging under power toward the school.  
"Oh no, not again!" he sighed leaping into the air.  
An explosion echoed from the wooded area, and a small mushroom cloud rose above the trees.  
Tobio walked out of the woods. His face was covered with soot, and his clothes were burned. He smelled of rocket fuel.

Kevin had tracked the rocket until he lost the signal.  
"I think it went down into the wooded area." He told his friends.

The students walked toward the woods only to find Tobio standing there.  
"What happened to you?" Kevin Blake asked Tobio.

"Your rocket ran into me!" he sighed. Tobio held the remains of the vehicles upper stage in his hands and gave them to Kevin. "Here's what's left of it."

The boys walked back toward the control shed to collect their things. As they got there a small electric car pulled up and Dr. Tenma stepped out. He took one look at Tobio, and his face turned white.

"Tobio, what happened to you? Come here, let me take you home!"

"Sorry Dad." Tobio sighed as they drove off. "I guess I did it again."


	9. Chapter 9

**A Eureka Moment**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
Eureka is a production of the SciFi network._

**Chapter**_** 9**_

**Jack, Allison and Kevin** were sitting at the dinner table finishing up the evening meal. Jack tried to show an interest in his stepson's school work and projects.  
"So how did it go with that research rocket you were working on with Henry?" Carter asked.

"Are you familiar with Murphy's law Jack?" Kevin asked.

"A little. It usually has do with bad luck, if I remember correctly." He said.

"Yeah, well it didn't go very well. The rocket got up a few thousand feet when the gyro's tumbled or something, and then the first stage engines sputtered and reignited. The rocket flipped in flight and headed toward the ground. I couldn't abort the flight, the radio remote control system went out. I was sure it was going to hit the school building, but it ended up in the woods. Must have changed direction in the last few seconds." Kevin replied.

"You know, that's the second time in two weeks that something nearly crashed into the Tesla school, only to end up in the wooded area back there." Jack remarked. "We still haven't figured our what went wrong with Edison's drone, or how it missed the school, other than Tobio Tenma's hand prints being on the wreckage."

"That's funny. I invited Tobio to come watch the launch, but he must have got to the launch site late. Maybe he took a short cut through the wooded area, because he was in there when the rocket crashed. He even told me that the thing practically hit him. Anyway when we went to pick up the pieces, Tobio walks out of the woods carrying what what left of the upper stage. He looked like he had been on fire, and smelled of rocket fuel. I thought that I had almost killed him!" Kevin wailed.

* * *

**Dr. Tenma **put his test instruments away after examining his son.  
"I don't see any damage from the explosion, Tobio. I guess you didn't injure yourself. Now please tell me again, what happened?"

"I intercepted the rocket in flight before it crashed into the school. I was able to divert its flight into the woods by hanging on to it to steer it. Guess I didn't let go soon enough before it hit the ground and exploded."

"You know, I had no idea just how dangerous this town was going to turn out to be when I took this job." Tenma laughed.

* * *

**Ethan Edison** and Henry Deacon had been burning the midnight oil the going over the core dump from the Drone's on board flight computer. Henry had ruled out a mechanical fault for the Drone mishap, and now it seemed that a computer malfunction wasn't entirely the cause either.  
"There's nothing wrong with the on board computer, at least not from a systems standpoint." Henry explained to Dr. Edison. "Which leaves the computer software. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything wrong with your source code."

"So where does that leave us?" Ethan asked.

"The unthinkable. I've been going over the binary dump and I've compared it with the what was on the lab system where you assembled the drone. They were identical. So I rebuilt the system from source using a backup copy from your computer from a few months ago. I then found a small difference which I've isolated. I then ran a pattern matcher on the bit of binary code that was different. Seems you've picked up a virus, Ethan".

"I'll have my lab computers quarantined from the network and run a scan on them first thing in the morning." Dr. Edison replied.

"Actually, Ethan, I've already reported the problem to the company IT geeks, and they are on it right now." Henry said.

"Good thinking, Henry." Ethan said. "We can't let a virus infect the rest of GD."  
Ethan scratched his head in thought.  
"You know, I heard that there was a rocket crash in the woods this afternoon. One of the student's research projects I think."

"Yes, that would be Kevin Blake. Damn, I helped him with the rocket engine construction. It should have been a perfect flight." Henry sighed.

"What was he using for a guidance system?" Edison asked.

"Kevin showed me this miniature flight computer he was adapting to control the rocket with. Hey, come to think of it, he was using one of your drone designs. Do you think?..."

"It's possible. Kevin was in my lab a week ago. He probably programmed the rocket's flight computer using my equipment. He could have picked up the virus as well." Edison said.

* * *

**Jo Lupo** found herself in William Greenblatt's office at a much latter hour than she was used to. The Global Dynamics computer geek was in charge of network security, and he took his job seriously.  
"I'm sorry to get you here at this hour Ms. Lupo, but company protocol requires that I get in contact with the head of security the instant I become aware of a breach in our computer system. It seems Dr. Deacon has discovered a computer virus infection in the Military Aeronautics laboratory computers. He discovered it indirectly when he was doing a postmortem on Dr. Edison's drone, indicating that the lab computer had been infected for some time."

"I guess thanks are in order then. Is the problem isolated, or has it spread to other systems?"

"I can't tell yet. I'm going to have virus scans ordered for all laboratory computers in the company first thing tomorrow morning. I realize that some projects may get delayed and miss deadlines, but we simply can't take the chance of another systems failure like Edison's drone." Greenblatt replied.

"Good idea. Can you determine how this infection got into the system?" Jo asked.

"That usually is the result of human error. All it takes is an infected un-scanned flash drive to be mounted on the wrong computer. I keep sending out emails detailing proper protocol for our high security systems, and nobody seems to read them!"

* * *

**Zachery Smith** entered the final command into the breeder reactor's control computer and checked the monitors. All looked perfect, the starting fuel was being enriched with just a bit too much U232, and a trace of Pu239. Just enough extra fissionable material to create a run away reaction if the reactor was set to run above 75% power. Smith set the system on automatic and turned down the lights. It was late and he needed to come back early the next day to readjust everything before Dr. Putzburger showed up and discovered his tampering. In a few days the experimental power plant would be tested. Smith knew that Putzburger would probably go way above the planned 60% power test while the super enriched fuel was still in the reactor. They would probably have to encase the building in concrete after that! Just the kind of disaster the oil tycoons were paying him for.

Smith locked the laboratory behind him and left for home.

* * *

**Deputy Andy** lived in the sheriff's office building. Being a robot he really didn't have any need for the kind of home environment that people did. What he did need were changes of clothes, a way to recharge, and some oil.

There was a recharging station in the back room of the building that served as Andy's residence. He had a closet for his clothes, mostly deputy uniforms, and a place to lie down while recharging. He did that overnight, which made it the robot equivalent of sleep for him. Andy poured himself a glass of an oil compound, actually it contained various lubricants and cleansing agents. He drank it slowly, savoring each swallow. As far as he was concerned it tasted like fine wine.

He undressed and put on a robe for the night. Andy climbed into his bed and plugged the recharging cable into a socket just above where his navel would be, if he had one. The socket was behind a small panel that the Deputy had just popped open.  
"Lights out please," Andy said, and and the building's computer complied.

The hum of the charger unit was like a lullaby to the robot, and he closed his eyes and fell asleep, or at least powered down and ceased to be aware of his surroundings. He did dream, though it was mostly mathematical in nature.

* * *

**Early the next morning** Dr. Fargo had a small conference in his office. Dr. Henry Deacon, Jo Lupo, Sheriff Jack Carter, and Dr. Ethan Edison were sitting around Fargo's desk when William Greenblatt walked in.  
"Let's make this quick so I can get back to work!" the computer geek said as he entered the office.

"Look, just fill Dr. Fargo in on what you told me last night" Jo said.

"Sure. I discovered a strange computer virus in Dr. Edison's laboratory system, the same computer which he used to program his drone prototype that shot up Main Street and nearly took out the top floor of Tesla High School. So far it looks like it was isolated to his laboratory, but I've just started scanning the rest of GD's network. It might take a few days to fully insure that nothing else was affected. I think we should stand down all critical operations till we know that their systems are clean."

Dr. Douglas Fargo scratched his scalp, and removed his glasses to clean them. He replaced them on his nose and cleared his throat.  
"We have a few critical operations running right now. Can you give high priority to clearing those systems right away?" he asked.

"Sure, Dr. Fargo. Give me the list of those and I'll see to it."

* * *

**Over at the Nuclear Engineering unit,** Zachary Smith finished checking the status of the breeder reactor. The slightly over enriched fuel was just a bit more slightly enriched than he had planned, but it would work. Smith reset the controls back to normal and started the shutdown procedure. By early afternoon it would be possible to remove the rods of nuclear fuel from the reactor and package them for shipment to the experimental power plant.

**On the other side of the complex**, Alan Putzburger and Zane Donovan had finished their inspection of the prototype power plant's Thorium reactor and had started to load the initial charge of Thorium fuel. An industrial robot handled the mildly radioactive material, and the two engineers stood behind a thick pane of leaded glass to observe the fueling operation. Once the Thorium canisters had been loaded, the next step would be the placement of the U232 fuel rods which would generate enough heat and free neutrons to convert a controlled amount of the Thorium into more U232. At this point the reactor would be self sustaining, generating enough heat to transfer to a boiler driving a steam turbine and dynamos to generate about 1 megawatt of electrical power. When the power plant was fully operational, Putzburger planned on connecting it to the local distribution lines and take a good chunk of Eureka off the state power grid. He'd demonstrate the experimental power plant by supplying some of the towns electricity.

* * *

**Dr. Tenma **was more than mildly surprised to see Zane Donovan smiling at the entrance to his office.  
"It's been a while since you last threatened me, Mr. Donovan. Have you come back to bother me some more?"

"Actually I came to invite you over to witness the new power plant start operation in a few days. Dr. Putzburger and I have just completed loading the primary fuel, and we expect to have the starting fuel installed by tomorrow. We've been working on this project for two years now, I thought you'd be interested in it." Zane smiled.

"If you are trying to impress me, it will probably take a larger effort. Still, I've been waiting to be introduced to Dr. Putzburger, this will probably be as good an opportunity as any. I'll be there to observe your work." Tenma replied.

"Good, you'll be impressed. By the way, I understand that the advanced physics class over at the high school will be invited to watch from the engineering floor. I believe your 'son' is in that class. He'll get a front row seat." Zane added.

"I'm sure Tobio will be interested. He's quite the technology buff, you know. It's in him actually."

* * *

**Deputy Andy **and Sheriff Carter stopped by the garage to find Dr. Deacon running a systems check on the garage computers. He looked up as the law enforcement duo walked in.  
"Hi guys, what's up?"

"Andy's been acting a little weird lately. Nothing is really wrong with him, he's just, well ..." Jack started to say.

"I seem to have more strength than usual, that's all." Andy added.

"Well let's check you out then." Henry said. "I thought that Dr. Tenma just examined you, he's the new robotics expert."

"Yeah, well that's the point." Jack injected. "This all started AFTER Tenma messed with Andy. He gave him some kind of upgrade or something."

Henry opened Andy's chest panel and hooked up a measurement cable. He then used a syringe to extract a small amount of oil from Andy's lube reservoir.  
"OK now let's see what's up." Henry said.

Dr. Deacon ran through a set of measurements using the computer instrumentation built into Andy. A funny look appeared on his face.  
"You seem to be putting out about 50% more power than per your specifications. Some kind of efficiency improvement in your power cells it would seem."

Henry placed a small drop of the lubricant fluid on a microscope slide and slide it into the video microscope on his work bench. He focused the image which appeared on a large screen monitor on the wall.

"Holly cow, that's not supposed to be there!" He cried.

"What's that?" Jack and Andy asked in stereo.

"Your oil seems to be infected with nanites. They are microscope sized robotics that can reproduce themselves. These things could reach any part of your mechanical systems and effect repairs, or even modifications. I bet they explain your increased abilities. Tenma must have installed them during your examination. I don't think that you have a problem here, though Dr. Tenma should have informed you about what he was doing as this procedure is highly experimental. I hope he'll call you back for another examination to monitor the progress of this."

"So what does this mean?" Jack asked.

"It means that Dr. Tenma has figured out a way to give Andy here a built in self repair system that is also effecting certain improvements in Andy's systems. I have no idea how far this will go, but so far it seems all for the better."

* * *

**As soon as **the truck carrying the rods of nuclear fuel left the Nuclear Engineering Unit, Zachary Smith started to pack his things. He and Putzburger had operated the remote control robots to load the fuel rods into the shielded packing crate, and then two burly men in haze-mat suits carried the crate over to the flatbed truck and loaded it in the back of the truck. Putzburger drove off and followed the truck, heading over toward the power plant.

It was getting late in the day now, Zach figured that they wouldn't load the starting fuel into the reactor until morning. That gave him plenty of time to leave town unnoticed. No one would be looking for him, until the unthinkable happened in a few days.


	10. Chapter 10

**A Eureka Moment**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
Eureka is a production of the SciFi network._

**Chapter 10**

**Zachary Smith **used a stolen password to remote login to the computers over at the experimental power plant. He uploaded a daemon into the control firmware that would be activated if the reactor exceeded 65% power in operational mode. Smith then issued another command to wipe the computer memory and disk drives of all evidence that he was ever there.  
"Well, I'm all done over here, time to make tracks!" he thought to himself as he left the Nuclear Engineering facility for the last time. The sun would rise in a few hours, and he would be long gone from Eureka before the first light.

**Deputy Andy **had a good night's rest and was fully charged by the morning. He felt great, clearly whatever Dr. Tenma might have done during his examination hadn't been a bad thing. Andy got dressed, and after leaving his room, closed the door behind him. He sat down in the Sheriff's office behind his desk and waited for Carter to show up. The sun was out, it looked like a great day in Eureka. Across the street he could see Henry's garage just being opened up for the day. Henry pulled up in his old truck and parked it in the usual spot. Dr. Deacon then walked down Main Street toward Cafe Diem for his breakfast. Andy decided to join him for a cup of coffee, and left the police station building, locking the door behind him.

By the time Andy had locked the door behind himself, Henry Deacon was already almost to the door of the eatery. Andy ran to catch up, but in his haste he had forgotten to tie his shoes and he tripped over the laces as his right foot hit a low spot in the sidewalk. As Andy started to fall, his right shoe fell off followed by his left. Suddenly, instead of landing face first on the ground, he found himself zooming over the sidewalk. He passed Henry, who had just opened the door to the Cafe. Andy blasted through the open door and landed in a heap by the counter. He wondered if this was how Arther Dent had felt the day that he had fallen, became distracted by a lost carry on bag that suddenly reappeared, causing him to miss the ground. (_A.N.: "Life, the Universe, and Everything", Chapter 18_)

**Dr. Alan Putzburger **and Zane Donovan got an early start in the experimental power plant, readying the reactor for operation. They made use of the robotic equipment to load the starting fuel into the reactor, standing behind the thick leaded glass shielding during the operation. Once the reactor's inner vessel, a double walled spherical chamber was sealed, the upper part of the outer cylindrical enclosure was lowered into place by an overhead crane. The space between the inner and outer reactor chambers was filled with the heat exchanger and inner cooling jacket. This space was then filled with a liquid metallic fluid, an alloy of Gallium and Mercury with a boiling point of over 4000 degrees F. Under the pressure inside of the reactor vessel's double walled outer vessel, this boiling point was even higher. The coils of the heat exchanger pipes were filled with a similar metallic fluid which conducted the heat to a boiler in an adjacent building through heavily insulated piping. It was in this adjacent building that the steam turbine and dynamos were located, they were the actual electrical generating portion of the power plant. A secondary heat exchanger was located within the reactor building, it was air and water cooled, and could vent excess heat out of the building via a huge fan. The reactor was some twenty feet tall, and about ten feet wide, and weighed about twenty tons. The outer vessel was screwed down to brackets sitting on four five foot high concrete pillars.

Zane started the initial power up of the reactor and watched as the temperature inside the vessel rose. As it reached the preset trip point the cooling fans in the heat exchanger came on and the temperature stabilized. Cooling water flowed through the vanes of the heat exchanger, the heated water was piped up to the roof where it was cooled by evaporation and condensation before being pumped back down to start the cycle again. The boilers next door had not yet been activated, they would not come on line until the reactor reached operational power; right now it was just running in idle not even having started the breeder cycle.

"So far it looks very good." Putzburger told Zane. "We'll leave it running at idle level for a few hours and make sure that the temperature remains stable. If all looks good we can try running at the minimum breeder cycle level after lunch for a few hours. Once that is proven, we can increase the power output to the point were we put the turbines on line."

"I've got those operations already programmed into the control computer." Zane replied. "I'm ready to go whenever you give the word."

* * *

**It had been several weeks** now since the incident of Kevin's rocket and the town had actually been rather quiet. Alan Putzburger had reported the strange disappearance of Zachary Smith from his position at the Nuclear Engineering lab to Jo Lupo. Smith's assignment had been completed with the fueling of the experimental power plant, but Putzburger had planned on giving him another task to work on. Why had the young man quit and walked out without even handing in his notice? Lupo had investigated and found that nothing had been stolen nor sabotaged in the lab where Smith had worked, so she just attributed it to the instability of an eccentric geek.

The experimental power plant had been put through all of the planned tests; except the full power up, on line operation of the facility. Now that the plant had been deemed ready and safe for general operation, the final test would be done in the presence of the town's officials, and the press.

* * *

**Dr. Tenma** bent down to straighten Tobio's bow tie. His son's advanced physics class was going to be present at the unveiling and first full power up of the experimental power plant later in the day. Dr. Henry Deacon would be presiding over the event in his capacity as Mayor of the town. The press would be present to witness the event, and not just the Eureka news media either. The experimental power plant was a civilian project of Global Dynamics, even though parts of it had been assembled by the military division of the company. Since it was a civilian project, the national news media had been invited and all of the TV networks were sending news crews. Dr. Tenma thought that Tobio should dress up in a suit for the occasion.

**Jo Lupo **was ready for anything. It seemed that every time some GD project in Eureka got major attention something would go wrong. The disaster would usually be just a nuisance, but too often she and Carter would have to save the town, and sometimes the entire world, from the brink of destruction. Andy and Carter were in town keeping an eye on things, Jo blended in among the spectators that were just beginning to show up at the power plant for the demonstration.

**The press** would be assembled in the upper story of the power plant's control area, which was really a balcony overlook facing the reactor room. From here, behind a thick glass wall, they could get a good look at the reactor as it was powered up. They would be able to hear what was going on below them through the intercom speakers mounted on the rear wall of the room. At the moment however, the crowd was gathered outside the building where several tents had been set up with tables of food and refreshments. The students from the High School advanced physics class were among the crowd having a free lunch with everyone else.

Dr. Tenma walked over from his office in the GD main research building. By now most of the food was gone, but he managed to find enough left over to build himself a sandwich and pour a cup of coffee. Zane slapped him on the back.  
"Glad to see you old man!" he yelled.

"You seem to be in a rather good mood. I guess it's because your project here has gone rather well during the weeks of testing." Tenma replied, giving Zane a mock punch in the shoulder.

"I don't believe it. The two of you are ALMOST being civil to each other!" Dr. Fargo laughed behind their backs.

"Hello Dr. Fargo! Well, unlike others, I won't make a scene in public. I would defend myself in public if necessary however." Dr. Tenma remarked.

"Same here, Douglas," Zane added with a smile.

Dr. Deacon walked up to the podium and tapped on the microphone to verify that the PA system was working. He cleared his throat before speaking.  
"Ladies and gentlemen of the press, students, and my fellow townsmen, welcome to the inauguration of Eureka's experimental power plant. This facility will hopefully be the model for future power plants throughout the country that will provide safe, cheap, and green power without adding to global warming. I'd like to introduce the two gentlemen who designed the heart of this system, Dr. Alan Putzburger and his assistant Zane Donovan. Dr. Putzburger has been with Global Dynamics for over twenty years now with our Nuclear Engineering division, while Dr. Donovan is a brilliant newcomer to our community who has already made significant contributions in many fields."

Dr. Putzburger and Zane Donovan both stood by Henry's side and smiled. Then both then quietly walked back into the building.

"I will now invite the members of the press to please follow Ms. Lupo, our lovely head of security, into the building where you will be able to witness this historic occasion from the safety of the overlook. I understand we have some more refreshments available for you upstairs" Henry continued.

**Jo Lupo raised her hands** to get the attention of the press personal, and she escorted them to the second floor of the control building. Henry motioned to Robert VanAllen that he could now bring his students into the building where they would be able to watch from the floor of the reactor room. Dr. Tenma followed Henry into the building after the students had entered.

The reactor itself was located in the back of the building. The rear wall of the reactor room was a large heat exchanger that was both air cooled with huge fans located on the outside of the building, and liquid cooled by a second unit on the roof with water pipes connecting the two. The reactor was connected to the heat exchanger by two well insulated pipes carrying a liquid metal heat conductor. Two additional well insulated pipes diverted some, or all of this heat through an adjacent wall which separated the reactor room from the power generation part of the plant. Here a boiler converted the reactor's heat into steam to power the turbines and dynamos the generated the electrical power.

At the front of the room was the reactor's computer control panels where all of the operational parameters of the reactor were monitored. A thick wall of lead glass separated the reactor from the control area and allowed the student spectators to observe the operation safely. A single door provided access to the reactor from the control area. Dr. Tenma walked over to the students and stood next to Tobio and Dr. VanAllen.

Dr. Putzburger picked up a microphone connected to the PA system.  
"We will now start the reactor up. This is a three stage process. The first stage essentially preheats the reactor by starting a small chain reaction using U232 starting fuel. Once the reactor has sufficient free neutrons and thermal energy the Thorium breeder process begins. Here the normally non-fissionable Thorium is converted into fissionable U232. Then the power generation process is initiated, which consumes the newly created U232. Part of this energy keeps the breeder process going, the rest generates the heat used to drive the turbines in the next building." Dr. Putzburger explained as he started the first stage of the reactor.

"We've gotten this far with the reactor's power up many times before earlier in the past two weeks." Zane explained, reaching for the microphone. "The reactor will reach the breeder process phase rather quickly now, in another fifteen minutes we will have that running."

Up in the overlook area the press crew were taking notes and a few TV cameras were capturing the action taking place down below. The students were divided between looking through the glass partition at the reactor, though there really wasn't anything happening there worth looking at; and the computer controls, which displayed the various parameters of the reactor's internal processes.

* * *

**Back in downtown Eureka** not much was happening. Those citizens that had not been invited to attend the startup of the power plant were either in Cafe Diem watching the news coverage of the event on the large screen TV, or were not interested in the event and were about their normal routines. Andy had taken a call from Dr. Fargo's grandmother to assist her getting her kitten out of a tree. He had performed this service several times, and suspected Grandma Fargo was staging these emergencies just to get Andy over for a spot of tea. When he arrived however, he discovered the cat had chosen a different tree than usual, and the ladder Ma Fargo kept in her garage wasn't going to be quite tall enough. Andy looked up from a few feet away at the wayward feline who was perched at least thirty feet high on a wobbly branch.

Andy couldn't figure out what happened next. He had got the crazy idea that maybe with his increased strength, he could jump high enough to grab the cat. He took a running leap and suddenly found himself floating twenty feet above the tree, suspended by what appeared to be jet exhaust emulating from the bottom of his legs. His police boots were gone, blown off by the thrust. Andy manged to descend under his own power, grab the surprised cat, and lightly touch down on the ground. He walked back barefooted to Grandma Fargo's door. She didn't see what had happened as her glasses were in her pocket, and there wasn't anybody on the street thanks to the happenings over at the power plant, so Andy's new ability remained his secret.

* * *

**Dr. Putzburger** now announced to the crowd that the reactor was running in the breeder mode and that they would be able to bring it up to full power in another half an hour. On the large monitor screen hanging in the back of the reactor room above the computer panels, the level of U232 fuel was slowly rising. What nobody noticed was the indication of a small amount of Pu239 contamination, that was also slowly rising.

Of all the students, Kevin Blake and Tobio Tenma were standing the closest to the computer panel. They both had the highest grades of all of the students in the advanced physics class and totally understood the operation of this new kind of reactor. Tobio, with his superb vision, was able to read all the indicators from where they were standing. He was the first to notice that something wasn't right. The temperature was somewhat higher than the physics predicted.

* * *

**Putzburger** decided that it was now time to demonstrate the power generation. He ordered the computer to withdraw the control rods from the power generator portion of the reactor core. Some of the liquid metal coolant was diverted into pipes leading to the building on the other side of the concrete block wall. The boiler in the generator room instantly started generating steam pressure and the turbines started to spin. As the electrical power output increased, the computers in the generator room switched the output of the dynamos onto Eureka's power grid. At the same time the substation at the edge of town disconnected itself from the state power lines. Downtown Eureka was now running on domestically generated nuclear power.

There was chorus of cheers from the press gallery upstairs accompanied by the popping of champagne corks. Zane monitored the reactor's output as it reached 85% power, the level they had decided to limit it at for the first full power run. They had planned to add a second unit to the plant later when this first reactor had finished a few months of operational study.

Tobio pointed at the panel and tapped Kevin on the shoulder.  
"Does that look right to you?" he asked.

"I don't think so." his friend answered.

"Dr. Putzburger?" Kevin yelled out. "Tobio and I think the breeder cycle is running away on you. Isn't the U232 level rising a bit too fast?"

Suddenly, as if to agree with what the boys had noticed by themselves, the system fired off an alarm. Several red lights started flashing and the room lights dimmed to make the emergency indicators more visible. Up in the press booth, wine glasses were being dropped to the floor and the TV cameras were turned back on and directed at the control panel. Dr. Putzburger looked at the indicators and made a few adjustments. He franticly ran between several control panels dialing in more adjustments. He then looked around the room and spotted Jo Lupo, and ran over to her.

"Jo, I think we need to evacuate the building quickly. I don't want to start a panic here, so tell everyone that we have a small problem and need to make some quick adjustments. Tell them some of what we may need to do is top secret or something, but get the press and the students out of here!" Putzburger had an ashen look on his face.

Jo Lupo whispered in Dr. VanAllen's ear and he nodded. The teacher gathered his students together and told them that the demonstration was over for them and that they needed to get back to class. In a few minutes the control area of the reactor room was empty except for Zane Donovan, Dr. Putzburger, Dr. Tenma, Dr. Deacon and Tobio. Tenma had remained behind and had pulled his son over to his side, away from his classmates.  
"Listen carefully to what the engineers are saying, Tobio. I need to know exactly what is going on." Dr. Tenma told the boy. Tobio cupped his hand to his ears, which could now hear a fly phart from a mile away.

Once the press core had been driven back to town by the waiting buses, Jo Lupo grabbed Zane and pulled him aside.  
"What is going on?" she demanded.

"Once the reactor passed 75% power, the percentage of U232 in the core started rising faster than it was being consumed. We just tried to scram shutdown the reactor. The power core is shutdown, but the breeder core isn't responding. We tried bringing the power core back up to consume the U232 but it makes no difference. If we can't shut down the breeder cycle, eventually there will be enough U232 inside the reactor to reach critical mass though out the core." Zane explained.

"So what does that mean in layman's terms?" Jo asked.

"It means that the reactor will explode." Putzburger injected.

"Wait a minute, I thought that a nuclear reactor couldn't go off like a bomb," Jo cried.

"Technically that is correct." Putzburger explained. "If you try and bring enough fissionable material together to reach critical mass, it will produce a burst of energy that will force the material apart. That's why an atomic bomb requires an explosive force to crush a sphere of nuclear material in an implosion, it's the only way to force the material together long enough to produce an atomic explosion. The material then fissions so completely that it is all consumed in a huge chain reaction that lasts only milliseconds. That's not going to happen here. However the density of the U232 will increase until a rapid chain reaction starts that will burst the reactor. The reactor vessel is strong enough to contain the force long enough for the reaction to consume a great deal of the fissionable fuel. It won't be an atomic bomb, but it might as well be. Everything within twenty miles will be destroyed."

Tobio's face turned white. He whispered in Dr. Tenma's ear what he just heard. His father face palmed and sighed.

Jo Lupo picked up her cell phone and called the Sheriff.  
"Jack, it's worse than the China syndrome over here. You and Andy need to start an evacuation of the entire town. I'm going to get word over to GD that they need to get the hell out of Dodge, pronto. I don't know how long we have, but everyone needs to get at least twenty miles away from the power station. It's going to explode."

Zane tapped Jo on the shoulder.  
"Ain't enough time. We've got maybe twenty minutes before she blows. Theres only one road out of town. You simply can't even organize a mass exodus in the time left, let alone execute it." he said.

Tobio looked at the reactor. He grabbed the handle on the door in the glass shield and forced it open. Tobio walked inside and looked up at the reactor. It stood twenty five feet high above his head, sitting on four concrete columns. Dr. Tenma followed the boy through the door.

"If we can't get the town's people twenty miles away from the reactor, then we have to get the reactor twenty miles away from the town!" Tobio sighed.

"Are you sure you want to try this? That reactor weighs over twenty tons!" Dr. Tenma told him.

"I have the strength, don't I dad?" Tobio asked.

"Yes. You have more power in you than several reactors that size, son!" Tenma said.

"Then I don't have a choice. If I do nothing the town will be destroyed and hundreds of people could die." Tobio sighed.

Zane Donovan had noticed Tenma and son standing next to the reactor.  
"Are you two nuts? Get the hell out of here, that thing's going to blow in about 15 minutes or so!"

"Zane, if you wanted to remove this reactor from the building how would you disconnect it?" Tenma asked.

"No, you can't be serious!" Zane looked down at Tobio, who had a look on his face that could turn someone to stone. "My GOD! You ARE serious! Well, you'd have to cut those two pipes carrying the liquid metal coolant, but watch the hell out because the 2000 degree liquid inside is going to turn to metallic steam once the pipes are cut. Then you've got about thirty seconds before the reactor over heats and melts down inside. That will only accelerate the processes, and she'll go super critical in about 20 seconds after the cooling fails."

Tenma scratched his chin. "Lets see, assume 15 seconds to reach 120,000 feet, that's about Mach 8. My design was good for at least Mach 10. Reasonable safety margin."

Tenma undid Tobio's bow tie and removed his jacket and shirt. Tobio slid off his pants and stood in only a tight fitting pair of briefs that looked like they were part of his body. That, a green metal band around his waist, and the red boots were all he now wore.

Tobio raised his right arm above his head and pointed it at the ceiling. His hand folded back and the arm morphed into some kind of cannon. He then blasted a 15 foot diameter hole in the roof just above the reactor.

Tobio's arm returned to near normal. His index fingers sprouted laser beams which he used to cut though the bolts holding the reactor down to the four pillars.  
"I think everyone better get out of here before I make the last two cuts." Tobio advised.

Zane was already moving. He grabbed Dr. Deacon and Dr. Putzburger who both were making a last ditch effort to command the computer to shut the reactor down, without any luck.

"Good luck Tobio", Tenma said.

"Call me Atom now." the boy answered. "We've just crossed over the line, and we can't go back."

"You're right son. Good luck Atom!" Tenma said and he gave the robot a hug.

Atom waited until the four men left the building. He cut though the two pipes with his finger tip lasers and the room filled with a hot silvery fog. Atom got under the reactor and grabbed onto the bottom of it. He blasted upward, pushing the atomic menace though the hole in the roof. He quickly accelerated through the sound barrier and kept on going. The sky rapidly turned a darker blue, and then an inky black, as he left most of the atmosphere behind him. Within 15 seconds he had reached the edge of space. He pushed the reactor to the west, out over the pacific ocean. At the very last instant he released the device and he continued flying up higher, faster, and further away; hoping that he had left himself enough distance for his own safety. Five seconds after he let go of the reactor, it exploded behind him.

* * *

**From outside the power plant building **Zane, Tenma, Putzburger, and Dr. Deacon saw a cloud of metallic steam escape from the roof of the building followed by what looked like an enormous shell blasting out of a huge cannon. A second later the air was shattered by a sonic boom. They followed the reactor with their eyes as it flew toward space, pushed by a fusion powered nine year old boy.

Jack Carter and Deputy Andy heard the sonic boom from Main street and had little difficulty spotting the source. Andy, with his newly acquired telescopic vision was able to see what was pushing the reactor skyward and he didn't believe it himself.

Fifteen seconds later there was a brilliant flash of light in the sky followed by a thunder clap from the explosion.

* * *

**Night fell.** The clean up crew in the power plant had mopped up all of the liquid metal coolant. Dr. Deacon, Dr. Putzburger, and Zane Donovan were going through the computer trying to figure out why they had been unable to shutdown the reactor.

Atom hadn't returned. The boy known as Tobio was missing. Dr. Tenma sat at home in tears. It was the second time he'd lost his son.

___A.N. : This was a long one. I could have split it in two, but I was on a roll and just had to get it all in here. And so I leave you in a cliff hanger. Sorta kinda sounds like A.B. #193 doesn't it? Well, there will be a chapter 11, but that's all I'm saying for now._

___Hey you guys! Leave a review here, or a note on ABOL if you liked this (or complain if you didn't!). This story can use a bit of love. Thanks!_


	11. Chapter 11

**A Eureka Moment**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
Eureka is a production of the SciFi network._

**Chapter 11**

**Atom **figured that he was at least 120,000 feet above the ground, and several miles west of the Oregon coast line, over the Pacific ocean, when he released the reactor. Atom poured on the rocket fuel and continued to climb higher and faster. His flight path was toward the west-southwest as he tried to put as much distance between himself and the potential bomb he had just let go of.

He hadn't left himself as much time as he had hoped. Seconds after his fingers released their grip on the reactor it exploded behind him. The explosion set out a shock wave and the blast of an electromagnetic pulse in his direction. Traveling at the speed of light, the EMP hit him first. It momentarily short circuited his computer brain, and Atom blanked out into unconsciousness. He didn't feel the slightly slower shock wave, which punched him like a heavy weight boxer.

Atom's rocket engines continued to fire as he zoomed up in a ballistic arc. His engines finally ran out of fuel and he was coasting upward. He almost completely left the Earth's atmosphere, following a similar path to an ICBM launched from the US west coast toward Asia. Still unconscious, Atom reentered the atmosphere and plunged earthward. He had crossed the ocean and was now over land. Down he plunged, finally hitting the ground atop the east slope of a snow covered mountain. He lay buried in the snow with his internal power plant shut down.

**Zane Donovan **knocked on the door and waited. He heard footsteps from within the house, and the sound of the peep hole in the door opening. Zane half expected for Dr. Tenma to refuse his company, but the door opened and he was beckoned in with a wave of a hand.

"I'm sorry about your son," Zane said. "Tobio was such a pleasant child."

"Oh come on Zane. You knew he was a robot. You were always trying to get proof of that, well now you have it." Tenma chirped back.

"That's not the point. You were raising him like he was your own son. It's clear to me now that you had nothing to do with your flesh and blood son's death. The robot was a replacement for the boy, and you were treating him as such. You're even grieving for his loss." Zane answered.

"That's not totally true, but you're right about my feelings for the robot. He filled a hole in my life that opened up after Tobio died, a hole that has now reopened even wider." Tenma sobbed.  
"And it's my fault he died saving Eureka. I should have warned him about the EMP. He could have shut himself down long enough to avoid the damage from the electromagnetic shock wave if I'd have told him what to do. I knew that what happened was a very real possibility. I just didn't think of it in time to save him."

"We don't know that that's what happened to him." Zane said.

"Well the only other possibility would be that he was so close to the blast, that he was blown to bits." Tenma replied. "I'd hate to think of that possibility. I really don't know which way would have been a kinder demise for poor Atom. In any case, what's left of him is probably in the middle of the deepest part of the pacific ocean right now."

**Deputy Andy **was Tenma's next visitor that day. The robotic policeman carried a large platter of sandwiches from Cafe Diem.  
"Hello Dr. Tenma. I'm really sorry about Tobio. I've brought you something to eat, so you don't have to prepare anything for yourself." Andy set the platter down on a nearby table.

"Thank you Deputy", Tenma said. He motioned to a chair for Andy to sit down next to him.

Andy sat and tried to think of something to say. He finally opened his mouth.  
"I feel really bad about what happened. I should have been the one saving the day, especially after your nanite treatment started giving me the extra strength and flying ability."

"Nonsense!" Tenma laughed. "Besides, by my calculations your enhanced abilities have not fully emerged yet. You would not have been able to perform the task that Tobio did. In a few weeks you will be able to, but not yet. Which reminds me, I have a pair of special boots for you in my office. We should go there and retrieve them for you."

"Are you sure you want to go back to GD so soon after .. " Andy started.

"It's no problem. I need to clean out my office, and the work will take the tragedy off my mind." Tenma replied.

Andy drove them over to the Global Dynamics research building where Dr. Tenma's office was located. Tenma opened the door to his office and opened the closet. After rummaging around in the back of it, he produced a pair of shinny new police boots.  
"Ah, here we go! These should match your deputy sheriff uniform quite well. They were made in your size, I hope they fit correctly. The boots are flame proof, and have a special retracting flap in the heel and sole to allow the jet exhaust nozzles clear access. They're exactly like the ones I made for Tobio, but in your size and color." Tenma handed the boots to Andy who tried them on.

"They fit perfectly!" Andy smiled.

Andy noticed the various half full boxes scattered around the office.  
"You're not going to leave, are you?" he asked.

"I haven't given in my resignation yet, but I'm thinking about doing so. I'm sure there will be quite a stink once the town's collective grief over Tobio's death is over with and people realize that he wasn't my son after all. I lied about that when I took the job, so I expect I will probably be fired anyway." Tenma sighed.

"I wouldn't bet on that." Andy smiled. "You don't know this town that well. I think people will have sympathy for the twice loss of you son. Please give us a chance."

**The team from the US Geological Survey Department **was spending the day on the east slope of Mt. Fuji. The volcano had been quiet for almost 300 years, but had recently showed signs of coming back to life. Volcanologists from all over the world had been working with the Japanese to determine the risk of a future eruption. Today, the US team was planting sensors on the snow covered east slope of the mountain. They were driving stakes through the snow cover into the ground below to insert tilt-meters and seismometers to take readings. Harry Morgan held one of the steel stakes in his hand and pushed it through the snow, probing for the ground below. What he felt through the stake didn't feel right.  
"There's something buried under here!" he announced to his companions, "hand me a shovel!"

The three scientists each grabbed a shovel from the toolkit and began to carefully uncover the spot where Harry had probed the ground. Ed Sweeny was the first to reach the buried object.  
"Oh my God! I think it's a body!" he cried out.

Harry carefully picked up the humanoid form that lay face down under the snow pack. It looked like the body of a small naked boy. However, as soon as he picked it up, he realized that it felt more like a doll or a manikin than a human body.  
"Hey you guys, I think this is a robot. I bet the Japanese Institute of Science must have lost this. It was probably doing the same job that we are and it ran out of power or something."

**Yuko** walked into Dr. Ochanomizu's office and stood in front of his desk.  
"I just answered a call from the US survey team on the east slope of Mt. Fuji" she said. "They think they have found one of our missing robots."

"I wasn't aware we were missing any" Ochanomizu replied.

"I didn't think so either, but they insisted that it had to be one of ours because it was so advanced. They are flying it in on a helicopter this afternoon. Shall I have them deliver it here?"

"Any description of it?"

"Yes" Yuko said "they sent a cell phone camera shot of it. Look on your computer."

Dr. Ochanomizu opened the new email on his desktop computer. His jaw dropped in surprise.

"Send that robot right here! Don't let anyone else get a look at it! My God, how did it get back here in Japan!"

_A.N.: Surprise! Thought I'd break the suspense with this quick installment._


	12. Chapter 12

**A Eureka Moment**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
Eureka is a production of the SciFi network._

**Chapter 12**

**The good folks** of Eureka were more shocked by Tobio's apparent demise, than to learn that he was a robot. To them a robot with kokoro, such as Andy or Tobio, was just like another race of humanity, and the people of Eureka were too open minded to be racists or bigots. In a mass they could not only understand Tenma's reasons for hiding the fact that his son was a robot, it never bothered them once they had learned of it. The boy was hero, plain and simple, and they felt Tenma's grief. Already there was talk about erecting a statue in the boy's honor.

* * *

**Dr. Douglas Fargo **knocked on the door to Dr. Tenma's office just as Tenma and Andy were preparing to leave.  
"Can I have a word with you, Dr. Tenma?"

"Andy was just about to drive me home, I came in only to get something for the Deputy." Tenma replied.

"This shouldn't take too long, if Andy can't wait, I'll drive you back home when we are done." Fargo replied.

"Go ahead Andy, I'll let Dr. Fargo run me back when we're finished." Tenma nodded to the Deputy.

"Sure Dr. Tenma, and thanks for the boots." Andy said leaving the office.

"First of all Uma, let me tell you how sorry I am for the loss of your son." Fargo said.

"You do know that the Tobio you met wasn't exactly my son." Tenma replied.

"Yes, I do, and that is what we need to talk about. But I do know that you were treating that robot as if he was your son, because you had lost your real son in a tragic accident. So my condolences are still in order. So tell me, why did you let all of us believe that the robot was your son?"

"That is a long story. At the Japanese Institute of Science I was attempting to make robots that were so much like people that they could become true companions. This was what the work of Dr. Kutcher was leading up to. His work is responsible for the modern robotic A.I.. His final theories would have led the way to true kokoro, a robot with a soul if you will, completely self aware and capable of original thought. Kutcher's final work was never published, and I had been able to get a glance at it though a bit of subterfuge with Mr. Donovan. Now that Kutcher is dead, I don't know what happened to his final work. You do know that they erected a statue of Kutcher in Japan, not far from the Institute of Science." Tenma crossed his hands over his chest and sighed.

"I started to build a super robot that would have tremendous strength and abilities. It would have been just what the military or the police would have loved to have. However, I wanted to endow it with kokoro, so it wouldn't be capable of becoming a mindless slave. Feelings were mixed at the Institute over the wisdom of my project, and in the middle of the development of this robot my son was killed in a senseless traffic accident. He was trying out his new hoverscooter and was hit by a runaway truck. I nearly went mad with grief. The only thing that kept me sane was the idea of putting my son's mind into a robot. I modified the super robot plans, and I started to build it in Tobio's image. I was able to get a brain scan from his body while he lay in a coma for several weeks before he finally succumbed to his injuries. From this I constructed the A.I. for the robot."

"As I recall, the Institute of Science canceled the funding for your super robot project." Fargo said.

"Yes they did. I had to continue it in secret. I was also able to suppress the information of my son's death. This enabled me to secret the robot out of the country by passing him off as my son. There was much work I wanted to complete, and I had found out that the robotics program at Global Dynamics in Eureka was as advanced as what I had been doing in Japan, particularly your robot deputy sheriff, Andy. I had to find out how his A.I. had come to be. I still suspect that Zane Donovan has something to do with it since I know of no other person who had a close working relationship with Kutcher. I decided that it would be best if I continued the pretense of the robot being my son, as it was a good way to test his kokoro. I was amazed at how well he fit in with the other students at the High School. My biggest problem was that Tobio was too honest, and kept trying to reveal his secret to everyone."

"Very well Doctor, I believe you didn't have any evil intentions. But how did you keep one step ahead of Mr. Donovan? Zane can be a pain in the rear when he sticks his nose into other people's business." Fargo asked.

"Ha, you got that right! Well I did have this little toy here." Dr. Tenma removed a flashlight like device from his desk drawer and showed it to Douglas. "This little gizmo is known as LOOKER. It generates a special combination of wavelengths of light that have a hypnotic effect on most people. When modulated properly, the device will cause temporary short term memory loss. It also renders someone quite helpless for a very short period of time, long enough to make a get away if you are caught with your hands in the cookie jar, so to speak." Dr. Tenma laughed. "The IOS developed LOOKER as a possible non lethal weapon for use by campus police. It wasn't too effective in this use once it was discovered that a common pair of polarized glasses will defeat it."

"Yes, Zane did mention that thing to me. By the way Dr. Tenma, I hope you weren't really thinking of leaving us. I see you've started to pack up things here, as if you had that in mind. I'd like you to continue working on your advanced robots here at GD. I'd also like Zane Donovan to assist you, if you can stomach him. I think it might be safer for Eureka, if I got him out of the nuclear research program." Fargo said.

"I'll have to give that some thought. Zane will be difficult to work with, but I think we secretly do see eye to eye. Meanwhile, I'd like some time to myself. I need to get over my grief." Tenma said.

"I do have one request to make of you, Dr. Tenma." Fargo added.

"Yes?"

"Your work with robotics A.I. qualifies you as a computer expert. Could you assist Dr. Deacon in his quest to figure out what went wrong over at the power plant? Putzburger and Donovan have too much of themselves tied up in the project to see clearly. I'm sure you'd like to find out who was responsible for Tobio's demise."

"Who?" Tenma asked.

"Yes, I'm certain at the end of the day we are dealing with sabotage here. And we already have a suspect, but no proof." Fargo added.

* * *

**The robot arrived **at the Institute of Science in a body bag. It was the best way to insure security as Dr. Ochanomizu didn't want anyone other than himself to examine the robot. With Yuko's help, he carried the canvas sack into the laboratory, placed it on a work bench and unzipped the bag. He let out a low whistle.  
"This robot is the spitting image of Dr. Tenma's son Tobio. I was certain that Uma had finished his super robot project in secrecy after his son was killed in that accident. Uma covered up his son's death, but as the boy's god father, I knew all about it. I gave Uma a glowing recommendation when he decided to take a position in America, rather than risk being terminated by the board. When he left here with his son, I knew exactly what happened. Now if this is that robot, how did it end up buried in the snow on Mt. Fuji?" Ochanomizu wondered out loud.

"Perhaps this might answer your question, Doctor." Yuma handed him an iPad. On the screen was a news article from an American newspaper. She had run the website though Google to translate it into Japanese for him.

_Eureka, Oregon. A new experimental Thorium reactor powered electrical plant was being demonstrated during its initial run, when disaster struck. The reactor suffered a catastrophic runaway reaction and could not be shut down. Minutes before the reactor would have exploded, taking out most of the surrounding area, the engineers at Eureka were able to attach rockets to the device, and it safely exploded some twenty miles above the pacific ocean._

"Well that's keeping some things secret. It's fairly obvious what lifted that reactor into the ionosphere" Dr. Ochanomizu coughed. "It also explains how Tobio here ended up on Mt. Fuji. I'll bet the poor robot was zapped by the EMP when that reactor went super nova. He must have been going Mach 11 or so which would put him in a ballistic trajectory over the pacific. Launched from the American north west, he'd easily end up right here in Japan. Landing on the snow covered slope of Fuji was dumb luck, the snow cushioned his fall."

Dr. Ochanomizu carefully opened the robot's chest panel to examine his inner workings.

"Can you repair him, Doctor?" Yuko asked.

"I wouldn't know where to start. It appears that all of his circuitry is intact, but there must have been some damage from the EMP emitted by the reactor when it exploded. Hopefully his systems made a safe backup copy of his AI and memory before the blast hit him. My problem would be that most of the plans for the super robot were erased from the lab computers when Tenma resigned. He's the only person who would have a chance of resurrecting Tobio now. Tenma is still a persona non grata at the institute, and there may even be an outstanding warrant out for his arrest if he tries to reenter Japan."

"So what should we do?" Yuko asked.

"There is only one thing we can do. Yuko, book us airline tickets for America. We are going to bring Tobio back home to Eureka. Get me in touch with the head of GD, I think that would be a Dr. Douglas Fargo. I hope my English is up to the task." Dr. Ochanomizu replied.

* * *

**Dr. Tenma **sat down with Henry Deacon inside the experimental power plant. It was difficult for him being there, where Tobio had made his sacrifice to save everyone in the town. The two of them were carefully examining memory dump images from the various computers that had controlled the reactor during its fatal run a few days ago.

"I think I see a pattern here" Tenma said pointing to the monitor screen.

"Not only that", Henry said, "but look here." He brought up a different memory dump file from several weeks ago.

"Where did you get that one? They look very similar, but I don't recall us making that dump file." Tenma asked.

"If you hadn't spotted the pattern in the plant's computer I wouldn't have thought of this. That is the virus I pulled out of Ethan Edison's drone. Whoever infected the power plant's computer must have tried out the virus first on the computers in Ethan's lab. And that's the same virus that Kevin got in his rocket." Henry said.

"Holly crap!" Tenma laughed. "Who ever blew up the reactor was also responsible for the other two incidents that Tobio was involved with. First he crash landed with the drone, then he caught a runaway rocket as it exploded on impact, and finally …. Damn! I want to nail this bastard hacker to the wall!"

"Well I think I have a name for him" Dr. Deacon said. "The very day that the reactor was first fueled and began testing, a contract engineer over at the Nuclear Engineering facility left without leaving a resignation letter. Jo Lupo cleared him, since nothing in the lab seemed to have been tampered with, and no data files were copied without authorization. She figured this Zachary Smith simply had gotten a better offer and just left town."

"I wonder if that better offer was from one of the enemies of nuclear power that wanted to protect their own interests with a bit of sabotage." Tenma wondered.

"Could be. Now all we have to do is prove it. We're going to have to get over to the Nuclear Engineering unit and go over their computers with a fine tooth comb. If we are lucky, Smith might have left some crumbs behind." Dr. Deacon said.

* * *

**Dr. Fargo's **intercom buzzed. His secretary informed him that he had a long distance phone call from the Japanese Institute of Science. A Dr. Ochanomizu wanted to talk to him.  
"_Hmm, that's the scientist who gave us a glowing recommendation for the hire of Dr. Tenma_" he thought.

"Hello Dr. Ochanomizu, this is Dr. Fargo. How are things in Japan today?"

"That's why I called, Dr. Fargo. It seems we've discovered something buried in the snow on Mt. Fuji that belongs to Dr. Tenma. I wanted to make sure that he was still there. I had a feeling that our discovery might have caused him some grief. We read about your little nuclear accident there. Fortunately, things turned out a little better for you in Eureka than they did at Fukushima Daiichi for us."

"Yes, Dr. Tenma is still here. The whole town shares his grief with the loss of his robot son. What is it that you found on Mt. Fuji?"

"That's the thing. Tobio isn't lost. We found him on Fuji."

It took a few moments for it all to sink in. Dr. Ochanomizu's thick Japanese accent on top of his English made him slightly hard to follow, but Douglas had figured out most of what he had been saying.  
"Tobio Tenma made it across the ocean and fell on Mt. Fuji? Is he alright?"

"He's mostly in one piece. Between the EMP and the impact with the ground he's going to need some tricky repairs, which I think will require Dr. Tenma's expertise. I've booked transportation to Eureka, we should be there in two days time." Ochanomizu reported.

"Excellent! I'll arrange for your arrival." Dr. Fargo replied.

After hanging up the phone, Fargo decided to wait to tell Dr. Tenma about this news. He wanted Uma to continue to work on getting proof of the sabotage on the power plant, and giving him this news now might distract his efforts. He wouldn't need to know that Tobio had been found until Ochanomizu actually arrived anyway. Things were looking up.


	13. Chapter 13

**A Eureka Moment**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
Eureka is a production of the SciFi network._

**Chapter 13**

******Yuko **spent about an hour on line and on the phone, making reservations for their transportation to Eureka. The closest city with a major airport to Eureka was Portland, from there it would be about a three hour ride by car. She was able to book them first class round trip tickets for a direct flight from Tokyo to Portland, with the return leg dates left open. The problem had been rental ground transportation, due to Ochanomizu's instructions. Firstly, she had to arrange for cargo space for the robot. Then there was the matter of the rental vehicle they would drive from Portland to Eureka. The Hertz rental agency at the Portland airport assured her that they could arrange for any kind of vehicle needs, but the agent on the phone was taken back by her request.

"You want to rent a what!?"

"You heard me." Yuko said. "We need to rent a hearse. We will be bringing back the body of a colleague's son from Japan. The casket will be checked as luggage and we desire to transport it personally."

It took the Hertz agency in Portland a few hours to find an available vehicle, and they called Yuko back direct with the confirmation.

"Well, that's taken care of" she sighed as Dr. Ochanomizu came up to her desk.

"It was the only way I could think of to get Tobio on the plane without all sorts of red tape. Government officials will usually just let a funeral transportation go through with little more than a rubber stamp. It will be a bit weird though, driving in the thing." Ochanomizu said.

* * *

******Henry Deacon **and Dr. Tenma went over the computers in the Nuclear Engineering laboratory with a fine tooth comb. William Greenblatt, the Global Dynamics IT geek, was assisting them.

"I've found some evidence of deleted files on the hard drive of this system." William said. "It appears that the disk sectors haven't yet been reallocated by the file system, so with a bit of painstaking work on my part, I think we can reconstruct the missing data."

"You mean you can rebuild the directory tree by hand?" Henry asked.

"Yes, it's possible. I've already recovered the user ID for the missing files, and they belonged to Zachary Smith, or someone using his login name and password. You know for a virus hacker the guy wasn't that bright. He's left enough bread crumbs in this system for a good security engineer to find with only half a brain."

* * *

******Dr. Ochanomizu **and Yuko left the JAL gate in the Portland airport and found their way to the baggage claim area. Their luggage didn't take very long to flop down the conveyor belt, but they had to wait quite a while before the heavier freight was removed from the airplane to be claimed. Yuko phoned Hertz and requested them to bring their vehicle around to the terminal, rather than having them seek transportation to the rental agency. It was worth the extra fee, considering that they needed the vehicle to pick up their last bit of checked 'luggage'.

Amazingly the Hertz agency had the hearse pulled round in front of the terminal at the same instant that the casket was wheeled into the baggage claim area. Then there was some paperwork to be filled out and the pine box was loaded into the back of the vehicle along with their suitcases. Yuko's being fluent in several languages helped matters, what English Dr. Ochanomizu spoke was mostly 'geek'.

Yuko handled the driving while Ochanomizu tried to manage reading a map. They had brought along a portable GPS, and Yuko's cell phone had a good map application as well. A good portion of the trip to Eureka was on Interstate I5, which was a well marked road. However they eventually had to turn off the major road, and take a number of winding two lane black tops, leading into the town that wasn't on any public map. Yuko had been given a latitude and longitude by Dr. Fargo to enter into the GPS, it was the only way to find their destination.

* * *

**William Greenblatt** had a shit eating grin on his face.  
"There you go folks, I did it!" he bragged. "Not only the binary that he uploaded to Egan Edison's laboratory and the power plant, but the source code as well! That egotistic asshole even signed his name on the source code. Can you imagine someone writing a virus and putting a header comment with his name on it?"

Dr. Deacon pulled out his Blackberry phone and sent a priority text to Jo Lupo. "_We have positive proof that Zachary Smith is our power plant hacker. He also spiked the reactor fuel supply."_

"Knowing Jo, as soon as she gets this, she's going to contact some of her friends over at the FBI and the NSA, probably the HSA as well. I wouldn't want to be in Zachary Smith's shoes" Henry smiled.

* * *

**It was getting dark** and Dr. Ochanomizu was getting a bit nervous. Yuko was a good driver, but the road was full of sharp turns. There were thick woods on either side of the road that hid what lay ahead of each bend in the pavement. Yuko suddenly slammed on the brakes just in time to avoid a collision with a massive bull moose that decided to cross in front of them, without looking out for oncoming traffic. Due to their short stop, the casket slid forward and slammed into back of Ochanomizu's seat. The majestic animal stood there with his breath steaming out of his nostrils several feet above their heads. Finally he slowly walked off into the forest without so much as a glance back at them. Yuko put the vehicle back in gear and continued following the GPS map, now driving about 15 mph slower than she had been before.

* * *

**Dr. Tenma **sat in his office with his head supported by his hands, his elbows resting on the surface of the desk. The saboteur who had been responsible for Tobio's misfortunes had been identified with enough proof to have him arrested. Motive still had yet to be found, but there was little doubt that it would be. It was getting late, but Uma had no desire to return home to the empty house. He looked around the office at the boxes he had started to pack, and had not yet decided to empty. He didn't know what he wanted to do. Maybe he should buy some farmland and grow horseradishes or something.

The sound of the telephone on his desk ringing brought him out of his self pity.

"Hello, Tenma here." he answered.

"Tenma, this is Dr. Fargo. I'm glad to find you still here in the building. You have a visitor waiting for you down in the main lobby."

"Sure, Dr. Fargo. I'll meet you down there." Tenma hung up the phone. Who would show up at to see him this late hour?

As Tenma approached the reception area in the lobby he could see two familiar faces in the company of Dr. Fargo.

"Hello, Uma. We've come a long way to see you." Dr. Ochanomizu smiled. "You do remember my assistant, Yuko, don't you?"

"Yes, my old friend. So you've come to comfort me in my time of grief?"

"Actually that isn't exactly why we came." Yuko said.

It was only then that Dr. Tenma noticed the casket that had been wheeled in on a laboratory cart.  
"What is that?" he said with a quake in his voice.

Tenma walked over to the box and Ochanomizu slowly lifted the lid. Uma's eyes widened as he stared into the coffin. "Tobio?"

"He was found buried in the snow on Fuji by a survey team several days ago. I realized right away what, I mean who, he was. I couldn't do anything for him, and this was the only way we could sneak him out of the country to you." Dr. Ochanomizu replied.

"I knew about this a day or so ago, Dr. Tenma." Fargo said. "You were making good progress with Dr. Deacon in identifying the cause of the reactor accident, so I decided not to bother you. I hope you can forgive me."

If Tenma was angry at this revelation, he didn't show it.  
"Come, lets get Tobio over to my laboratory at once. If there is any chance of repairing him, I want to start immediately."

Dr. Fargo reached for his Blackberry and started to type out a text message to Dr. Deacon. Next to Dr. Tenma, and probably Dr. Ochanomizu, Henry was the second most qualified robotics expert at GD. His assistance might be required.

Uma reached into the casket and lifted his robot son out. He held Tobio against his body, as he would a sleeping child. His eyes became moist with tears of joy, and he silently prayed that he could work a miracle.


	14. Chapter 14

**A Eureka Moment**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
Eureka is a production of the SciFi network._

**Chapter 14**

******Doctor Tenma **opened Atom's chest panels and hooked the boy robot up to the laboratory instruments. A few moments later, Dr. Deacon arrived, he had left his home immediately after receiving the text message from Dr. Fargo. Henry observed the computer readouts and watched Uma probing inside of the robot's body. So far there were no signs of any activity within any of his systems.

******Deputy Andy **had tried to lie down to rest and recharge himself, but he kept feeling something itching inside of him, and it was getting worse. He felt like something was calling, no pulling him; and he had to answer the call. He left the police station and got in the Jeep parked out front. He wasn't sure where he had to go, and he started driving on autopilot. He parked the Jeep in front of the main research facility at Global Dynamics and entered the building. Andy found himself in the back of Tenma's robotics laboratory. A small crowd of people were standing around a well lit workbench where Tobio's lifeless body lay. Andy moved closer and stood next to Dr. Fargo.

******Several hours **passed as Tenma ran different tests, and went through various restart procedures. Dr. Ochanomizu and Dr. Deacon both assisted Dr. Tenma during some of his attempts to bring Tobio back, but so far nothing positive had happened. Finally Uma Tenma admitted the worst.

"It seems like Atom's main power control systems were fried by the electromagnetic pulse. We don't have the special parts here to replace the damaged components and I can't repair them either. I used some very advanced systems to enable me to put so much energy and power into such a small package. It might take me a year to rebuild the system from scratch."

Dr. Deacon looked at Andy, remembering his examination of the deputy, and rubbed his chin in thought.  
"You could repair the damaged parts at the molecular level" He suggested.

"Yes, my nanites!" Tenma exclaimed. "The nano robotic machines could do the job, if Atom were even slightly powered up. It's a catch-22 problem, I can't power him up because his critical systems are too damaged, and the nanites can't repair those systems without some available power."

Andy turned to Dr. Tenma.  
"What about a transfusion?" He asked.

"Out of the mouths of babes!" Tenma exclaimed.  
"Deputy, would you please undress and lay down on the table next to Tobio?"

"Sure, no problem" Andy replied.

Dr. Tenma opened Andy's access panels and lowered a video microscope into his body. On the overhead monitor he could see Andy's systems greatly magnified. He zoomed in on Andy's power regulator and increased the magnification.  
"The nanites have modified Andy's power regulator system to be more like Atom's. In fact, they are now mostly compatible. I could hook Andy's power regulator in parallel with Tobio's and use Andy to power him up. Then we give him an injection of nanites, and we wait."

"Gentlemen, I could use some assistance!" Tenma asked.

Andy lay down next to Tobio's still form. Tenma instructed Dr. Ochanomizu how to construct the required cables from the available raw wire in the laboratory store room. He and Dr. Blake started out to accomplish that task. Uma worked on disconnecting parts of Atom's system so he could access the required connections. Yuko downloaded several 3D model files to a flash drive and handed the storage device to Dr. Fargo, who ran off to operate the CNC milling machine in an adjacent laboratory, to create a high power junction block from a solid hunk of copper.

Finally all of the required equipment was ready.  
"Andy, you understand that this procedure could be dangerous to you. We could overload your systems and possibly burn something out. I don't think the worst case scenario would be fatal to you, but I could leave you in a coma like state for weeks." Dr. Tenma said.

"Hey doc, I already told you I wished I could have done what your son did. This is my way of repaying him for his self sacrifice." Andy replied.

"OK then, let's get started." Tenma said.

First they attached the cables and clamps to Atom's power couplings. Then they joined him to Andy by attaching the other end of the cables to matching points inside of the Deputy's body. Between the two of them the cables joined inside of a switched junction box where Dr. Tenma could control the moment when the transfusion would start. Uma used a syringe to remove some of the nanites from Andy's body, these nano machines had already been self programmed to work on Andy's systems, and they would get right to work inside of Atom as soon as they felt some power flow. Tenma injected the nanites into the EMP damaged components inside of the his son's body. He then threw the transfer switches to the on position, one switch at a time.

The computer monitors registered a twinge of current flowing in Tobio's body. The nanites began to congregate in the damaged areas of his systems. Andy drifted into a semiconscious, dream like state.

"Now all we can do is wait. We should see some signs that it's working within a few hours, but if it does work it could take days for him to recover." Tenma sighed.

* * *

******The word spread** though out Eureka. The entire town now knew that their hero had returned, and was lying in the robotics laboratory fighting for his life. Almost all work at GD ground to a halt as everyone waited for news from the main research building. Dr. Tenma, Dr. Oschanomizu, Dr. Deacon, and Zane Donovan took turns sitting at the instruments monitoring Tobio's progress. In the end however, none of them wanted to leave the laboratory, and their meals were brought in. They lived on coffee, Jolt Cola, and Red Bull. Several cots were also brought into the laboratory so they could take a catnap when they really needed to.

* * *

******After twenty four hours****, **Dr. Tenma made the announcement that he had not yet seen any improvement. The nanites seemed to be moving from one area to another, but they hadn't yet started to make any major modifications to the damaged areas. No one had given up hope yet. Tenma injected some freshly made nanites into Atom's systems, hoping that between the 'veterans' and the 'tyros' some order would come out of the chaos.

The monitor readout that everyone had their attention riveted to, was the dual bar graph that showed the power flow into Tobio's body from Andy's regulator, vs the power flow being generated totally within the boy's own system. So far the second indicator, located on the left hand side of the screen, read absolute zero, while the first on the right had side, indicated a very conservative value. It had now been 36 hours with no change in these readings. Doctor Tenma adjusted the couplings so that Andy's body would be asked to provide double the power flow. Maybe the nanites were simply starving and needed some more nourishment to perform their task?

"Do you think that is wise, Dr. Tenma?" Henry asked. "You could damage Andy's systems by asking them to provide that much power."

"The nanites have increased Andy's power handling abilities, and they are still at work inside of him. He should be fine even if I double the power demand a second time." Tenma said.

The deathwatch continued. It had now been four whole days since they had connected the two androids together. Dr. Ochanomizu lifted his tired eyes up one more time to glance at the bargraph display. The left hand side which indicated Tobio's internally generated power flickered. Dr. O. walked closer to the screen and touched the magnification button to get a better view. There was no doubt. It read 0.05%. While that was a very tiny amount, it was the first time it had read above zero since they had started the procedure. It was working! It was finally working!

"Uma! LOOK!" he cried out pointing at the bargraph display.

Dr. Tenma's eyes were red from lack of sleep. He had a dull headache from lack of food. However the rush of adrenaline triggered by the sight of the indicator cleared his head in a flash.  
"Tobio! You're coming back to me!" He cried out.

Yuko, Henry, Douglas and Zane looked up and saw the bargraph. It had risen in mere moments to 0.15%. A resounding cheer rose in the laboratory Hands slapped each other, and everyone exchanged hugs with one another. The indicator soon reached 0.5% and it was now visibly climbing. The nanites were finally doing their job.

* * *

**Somehow** the premature news leaked. The patrons inside Cafe Diem heard the news and the somber mood turned cheerful. Vincent downed an Irish Coffee in celebration, and had to make enough for the rest of the crowd. He was soon too busy making refills for everyone else to have anymore for himself. Sheriff Carter realized that he would soon have a very happy, but very drunk crowd on his hands.

* * *

**Within a few hours** the left hand bargraph had reached 15%. Atom's internal power supply was now on line, and was delivering enough energy by itself to maintain the current level of nanite activity. Dr. Tenma carefully disconnected Andy and removed the transfusion cables from Atom. Tobio was now on his own. The internal power meter was at 25% and steadily rising.

Andy opened his eyes and slowly tested his legs. He was able to stand, though he did feel a bit dizzy. The deputy walked slowly toward the group of scientists standing near the operating table.  
"How's the kid doing?" Andy asked.

"We're past the first crucial point." Dr. Tenma said. "Unless something unexpected happens, his internal systems will self repair in another 24 hours or so. The big question then will be how much of his memory and AI remain intact."

Dr. Ochanomizu placed his hand on Tenma's shoulder.  
"Uma, just when did you develop those nanites?"

"I'd like to know that too." Dr. Fargo added.

"I brought the prototypes of these with me from Japan. I had started work on the concept at the IOS while I was designing the super robot prototype. The nanites can self replicate themselves if they are fed the required raw materials. Like wise, they can repair systems into which they are introduced, if they have the available elements. The liquid that the nanites are suspended in contains silicon, titanium, and other materials from which robot systems are built. Hence they can effect repairs. I first tried them out on Andy a few weeks ago as an experiment." Tenma explained.

Early the next morning Tobio's indicators had reached 90%. He was still in a coma like state, but his autonomic nervous system functions were now normally active.

"It won't be long before he regains consciousness." Tenma said. "Then we'll know how much of his AI and memory is intact. I'd like for him to wake up in a normal environment, can we set up a mock hospital room, with a suitable bed and instruments?" Tenma reached into his pocket and withdrew his house keys. "Also, can someone run over to my place and retrieve some of Tobio's clothes? His pajamas are in the lower drawer of his dresser."

"I'll go." Zane volunteered. He took the keys from Uma and headed out to his car.

Tobio was wheeled over to the medical research area of GD. Dr. Allison Blake finished setting up a recovery room just as the cart with Tobio was pushed into the room. Zane entered carrying a pile of clothing.  
"Did Tobio really like these?" he asked holding up a pair of "fluffy footy PJ's with a pull over hood that sported ears on top.

"Yes, those were his favorites" Dr. Tenma said.

Uma carefully dressed his son in the pajamas and pulled the blanket over his body. He fluffed up the pillow and carefully lifted Tobio's head and laid it down on it. The modified medical instruments reported his vital signs. The computer equivalent of an EEG readout was showing increasing brain activity. Tobio was now out of the coma and in a dream state. His body started to twitch as his senses came on line. He was now aware of his surroundings, though not in a fully awakened state. His body was now trying to find a comfortable position on the bed, something we all do in our sleep.

"Everyone, please leave the room now. Let's not confuse him when he wakes up. I want to be alone with him." Tenma requested.

Dr. Tenma sat next to the head of the bed. Tobio continued to fidget, and his mouth opened in a yawn. Finally he opened his eyes. Tobio appeared to be trying to figure out where he was, and how he got there. His eyes met Uma's and he smiled.

"Tobio?" Uma spoke softly.

"Dad?" the boy answered. "Where am I? What happened?"

"What is the last thing you remember son?" Tenma asked.

Tobio stared at his father and contemplated the question. Slowly a fog seemed to lift and and he was able to again speak.  
"I … I was riding my hoverscooter. I had gone to get you a father's day present and I took my new hoverscooter into town to go to the store. I was on my way back and …. out of the corner of my eye, I think I saw a truck and it all went dark. I guess I was in an accident. I'm sorry dad. I didn't mean to worry you. And I guess I lost your present."

Dr. Tenma's eyes teared up and he gave Tobio a hug.  
"It's OK son. Everything is going to be OK. Why don't you rest a little. I'll be right back." Tenma said.

Uma walked out of the room toward his worried colleagues. From the look on his face they all knew something was not quite right.

"Tobio doesn't remember." He said. "He doesn't know where he is now, he doesn't know what or who he is. The last thing that he remembers is the fatal accident that killed him. All of his memories as a robot are gone. He thinks he IS the original Tobio."


	15. Chapter 15

**A Eureka Moment**

**Chapter 15**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
Eureka is a production of the SciFi network._

**Deputy Andy **slowly got used to his new abilities. Besides his vastly increased strength, ability to fly via his new leg jets, super hearing and telescopic vision; he also had a developed a higher IQ and a strong desire to defend and protect. In short, the nanites that Dr. Tenma had originally designed as a sort of "anti-body" and self repair system for his original super robot design, had transformed Andy into a close clone of Tenma's super robot. Andy was, for all intents and purposes, what Tenma had planned on creating up until the moment when Tobio had met his fatal accident, and the project shifted to being a replacement for his son.

Dr. Tenma came by the sheriff's office looking for Andy.  
"How's it going Deputy?" he asked.

"I'm getting better day by day." He said. "Somehow, I think I'm a completely different robot now. Maybe I should find another name for my new self, at least when I'm doing 'superman' like stuff?"

Sheriff Carter sat behind his desk at looked up at his Deputy.  
"You know, as far as I am concerned, and probably the whole town as well, you'll always be Andy."

Tenma smiled. "I'd have to agree with that. But you know, I did have a name picked out for the prototype super robot before it was rebuilt as Tobio."

"What was that?" Andy asked.

"I was going to call him Cobalt. You could always use that name if you like." Tenma chuckled.

"Yeah, I like that. Andy Cobalt." he said.

* * *

**Tobio** was still in the recovery room in the Eureka medical research facility, and Dr. Tenma figured it was about time to take him home. He had been worried about how to explain to his son what had happened in the time between his fatal accident and him waking up in Eureka, however the boy had figured out a reasonable story all by himself.

"Dad, I guess I was in a coma for a long time after the accident. You probably had to bring me to America for treatment, that's why we left Japan and ended up here in Oregon."

"That's close enough to the truth, son" Uma agreed.

Dr. Ochanomizu sought Tenma out alone.  
"Aren't you going to tell him the truth?" He asked.

"I've been thinking it might be better if I didn't. I can program his autonomic systems to hide his super human abilities from him until he is in dire need of them. Sorta like adrenaline on steroids. If I didn't have the super robot project as an available bootstrap, I'd probably never had built a robotic replacement for Tobio with such abilities. I mean what was I thinking, a ten year old boy with enough fire power to take out an entire army? I must have been nuts."

"Well, in a way Uma, you were. You were crazy with grief. Still you can't keep the secret from him. Just the fact that he won't grow up like a normal child will give away the fact to him that he isn't human. And there are, er, other issues that will come up."

Dr. Tenma laughed.  
"You would have been correct about that Ochanomizu, except for the nanites. Tobio's systems are now filled with the little nano machines. They will keep him in good repair without any help from myself. They have also been programed to mimic the growth patterns of a human child. He WILL grow and reach a normal height for a human male child. His body will also change in ways that a human would while reaching puberty. And that other issue that you were thinking of will also be taken care of."

"You could do that?" Ochanomizu asked.

"Yes, his body will be nearly 'anatomically correct' when the nanites have done their work. He might be biologically sterile, although I think I could eventually fix that, but he would still be able to perform correctly." Tenma explained.

"I don't know Uma. It seems like a shame to deny him the abilities that he had. He could be a tremendous asset to mankind."

"We have time for that. I'm not going to destroy his advanced systems. I'm only going to keep them off line for now. Let's give Tobio a chance to just enjoy being a kid. That's what he was trying to do all this time. He didn't want to be a hero. He was forced into it." Tenma said. "If Tobio finds himself in a situation that demands it, he will still be able to rise to the occasion."

"Yes but wouldn't that be quite a shock to him when he discovers the truth?" Dr. Ochanomizu reasoned.

"No, his programming will accept it. Besides, it is still possible that his amnesia is not permanent, and he may yet remember the missing events. In fact, I suspect that is what will happen if he does experience and 'adrenaline event' that triggers him to discover his abilities

**Eureka** was notified about Tobio's condition. When he returned to school his classmates realized that he'd have to meet them for the first time all over again. Kevin Blake was more than happy to befriend Tobio for a second time. He fit right in with his classmates, his IQ was just as sharp as it had when he knew he was a robot.

Once again, Sgt. Brown started his PE class by having the students do their push ups, and he waited until the last student gave up from exhaustion before going on. Once again, Tobio was the last to give up, and not until he was told to.

* * *

**Sometimes** disaster struck Eureka without any help at all from the scientists and engineers who worked at GD. While they might not still have Atom as a hero, they did have a new hero. This time, the threat crept in at 50 mph down the steel rails of the Portland and Western's Eureka spur. Loaded with volatile industrial chemicals, a freight train was making its way south on tracks just a few miles from the secret town.

On a two lane black top that intersected with the P&W tracks, a crossing signal just in front of the right of way blew a fuse and would not operate the next time a train approached. The tracks ran downhill at this point and the train picked up some speed, just as a gasoline tanker loaded with 10,000 gallons of 94 octane unleaded approached the crossing.

Deputy Andy was in the sheriff's office when he heard the horn of the lead locomotive wail in the distance. His ears increased their sensitivity to 10,000 times normal and he could hear the grinding of brakes and the cooling fans of the locomotive's dynamic breaking system rev up. Andy ran out of the office, but the jeep was missing, the sheriff was probably out with it. Andy jumped skyward, his leg jets blazing as he flew toward the impending wreck.

The driver of the fuel truck started across the tracks since the signals remained dark. Heavy foliage in front of the tracks hid his view of the approaching train. The tractor had been running rough all day and as he slammed out of first gear into second his clutch jammed and he stalled out on the tracks. He tried to get the machine moving again, but by the time he heard the horn it was too late. The engineer tried to stop his charges, but there wasn't time. The lead engine plowed into the truck, just in front of the tanker. The truck jack knifed as the locomotive slammed into the fuel tanker. The 10,000 gallons of high grade motor fuel went off like an atomic bomb. The truck driver was thrown from cab of the tractor. He was shielded from the inferno by the passing hulk of the two General Electric 5000 HP diesel locomotives. He got up and ran from the tracks as fast as he could. It was a good idea. The intense heat of the blast caused the steel rails to liquefy and several chemical tankers left the tracks and stopped in a heap on either side of the tracks.

The fireball was seen from the Tesla school where Tobio was in class. He saw the mushroom cloud rising in the distance and gasped at the sight though the windows, along with his classmates. The thought of being able to do anything about it never entered his mind.

Andy arrived on the scene within seconds after the tanker cars had left the rails. Two of the tank cars held chemicals that if released and combined, would produce a poison gas cloud which would blow towards town. The flames from the gasoline tanker were spreading toward the derailed cars. Andy picked up the first of the two tankers and flew with it, placing it safely down about a mile away from the wreck. He then moved the second tank car to a safe location far away from the flames and the first tanker.

At the back of the train, Andy noticed two cryogenic tankers containing liquid CO2.  
"Just my lucky day!" he thought. Andy picked one of them up and flew over the flaming gasoline. He punched a hole in the side of the tank and poured the liquid over the flames. He quickly extinguished the fire.

'Cobalt' had just saved the town.

* * *

"**You owe me big time!" **Zachary Smith complained. "Even though the GD wasn't blown off the map, the technology behind that reactor has been given a big smear treatment in the press."

"Maybe so, but now they can rebuild it and try again." Acetylene Lamp replied. "I don't think the syndicate is going to be happy, which means we are both in trouble. You've got a bit more to worry about than just the FBI and the HSA. I'd be more worried about the syndicate if I were you."

"So what are we going to do?" Smith asked.

"We are going to hid in the one spot nobody is going to look for us." Lamp replied. "We are going back to Eureka. While we are there, we are going to have to make sure that GD is put out of the picture for good. You are going to have to stay low and handle the hacking stuff. I will see about the inside job."

"Yeah right. You wouldn't fit in very well inside of GD." Smith laughed.

"You don't know me very well do you.?" Lamp said as he punched Zach in the forehead. The brass rat on his ring finger left an impression in the computer geek's skin.

"Ouch!" Zach cried, rubbing his head. Lamp held his fist up in front of Smith's eyes so that he could see what had hit him.

"Really? You?" he asked.

"Class of '97" Lamp said. "So who's the dumb ass now, Mr. Princeton University?"

**Jo Lupo** knew that it was now out of her hands. She had given the evidence on Zachary Smith that Dr. Tenma, Dr. Deacon, and Bill Greenblatt had dug up to her contacts in the FBI, and the HSA. She'd expected to have received word very quickly that Zachary Smith had been arrested, but somehow he'd managed to avoid the dragnet put out for him. She wondered if the people that Smith had been recruited by had somehow hidden him. At least he was no longer in Eureka, she thought. We can get back to normal now, whatever normal in Eureka might be anyway.

_A.N. Well I guess it isn't over yet. Not as long as our two 'black hats' are out there anyway.__Feel free to leave a review, some comments, let me know you're out there! If not here, then on_

Thanks!


	16. Chapter 16

**A Eureka Moment**

**chapter 16**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
Eureka is a production of the SciFi network._

**Andy returned** to the sheriff's office to find Jack Carter inside. The Sheriff was on the phone and hung up the handset just as his deputy entered.  
"You've been a busy robot Andy Cobalt! I was just on the line with the railroad emergency people and the National Transportation Safety Agency" Carter smiled.

"All in a day's work" Andy laughed.

Jack looked carefully at his deputy. His uniform was burned and torn, as well as covered with soot. There was something else as well; he looked younger somehow, maybe a bit leaner and his hair was different. His uniform looked a bit big on him too.

"You know Andy, if I didn't know you were a robot I'd have to swear that you've lost some weight!" Jack said.

Andy tugged at his uniform with a look of surprise on his face.  
"Yeah, it does seem a bit baggy on me. Maybe because it got torn"

Andy went to the back room to change into a fresh uniform. He returned a few minutes later, wearing clean clothing which didn't fit him in the same manor.  
"I guess I'm going to have to have these taken in by the tailor." he laughed. Andy turned to look in the mirror and ran his hands though his hair. It seemed to have grown longer in places and shorter in others, almost as if it were trying to style itself.  
"That's weird." he said.

* * *

**Tobio **ran down main street toward Cafe Diem. He entered the eatery and grabbed a counter stool.

"What will it be young man?" Vincent asked.

"Pizza with ice cream!" he cried.

"One slice of Pizza à la mode coming up!" Vincent said as he turned his head away from the boy to face palm to himself. "_What strange tastes our youth has!_" have he thought.

Andy sat at a table a few feet from the counter. He looked at Tobio and felt a connection. Of course, the two of them had been cross wired together for a few days while his systems had provided the energy and stabilization for the boy's to repair itself. It went deeper than that though, the same nanites that had repaired the boy had also changed his own DNA, and turned him into a more advanced super robot. Andy now had the abilities that Tobio was originally built with, abilities that the boy now either had lost, or were being suppressed by his memory loss. The two of them were almost brothers now, and Andy felt a responsibility to look after Tobio.

Vincent wandered over to where the deputy was sitting.  
"Planning on ordering anything?" he asked.

Andy heard himself say "I'll have what the boy ordered" and he wondered why he said it.

Vincent gave him a cross eyed look and a groan.

Andy moved to the counter and sat next to Tobio as Vincent pulled a reheated slice of pizza out of the oven, dumped a scoop of ice cream on top of it, and served it to the deputy.

"How's it going Tobio?" he asked

"Oh Hi Andy." Tobio said between bites. "I didn't know you liked pizza with ice cream."

Andy tasted the concoction slowly and smiled. "Actually, until this moment, I didn't either."

"I heard how you saved the town after that train wreck. That was super! I wish I could fly like you! Of course you're a robot, though that's not that that's a bad thing." Tobio babbled. He finished his last bit of pizza and hopped off the stool.  
"Got to get back home. My dad's waiting for me!" Tobio ran out of the Cafe and down the street. He didn't notice that he was keeping up with the automobile traffic on main street which was moving at a good 25 mph.

* * *

**The computers** in the Nuclear Engineer facility had been given a clean bill of health by Bill Greenblatt. With the virus gone, Dr. Putzburger and Dr. Deacon started the cleanup of breeder reactor. Alan Putzburger wanted to rebuild his power plant reactor as soon as possible. He was working on the design to prevent the runaway breeder cycle that had been induced by Zachary Smith's computer takeover. The breeder reactor would have to be taken apart, cleaned up, and refueled before they could attempt to generate new starting fuel for another Thorium reactor.

The experimental power plant had also been cleaned up. The huge hole that Atom had blasted in the roof was gone, in fact so was the entire roof. The liquid metal coolant had eaten into the floor of the reactor room. Two feet of new concrete floor had been poured in the building, raising the reactor room floor by that much. The roof would need to be raised by three feet and the walls of the building had been doubled in thickness. A temporary roof sat on new beams, and a permanent repair would be made after the rebuilt reactor was lowered by heli-crane into the building.

* * *

**Zane Donovan **and Dr. Tenma actually got along quite well. They both had a huge admiration for Dr. Kutcher, and Tenma enjoyed hearing Donovan talk about his former mentor. Zane realized that Tenma wasn't that much different from himself. Deep down they were both egotistical bastards who had to be the top dog in whatever they did. It was hard for Zane to admit this about himself, but it felt good to know his own faults and become a better person. After what he'd been through with his son, Tenma was probably feeling the same thing, Zane believed.

**Andy** now reported on a regular basis to the robotics lab for examination. Tenma kept careful watch on the changes that the nanites were still making to the robot's body. There were both internal systems changes, and external appearance modifications happening. Andy was slimming down in weight as his internal superstructure was modified. His facial appearance was morphing as well. Uma could almost swear there was now a family resemblance between Andy and Tobio if you looked hard enough. It was almost like they were half brothers, sharing the same father with different mothers.

* * *

**Sgt Brown** carried a large canvas bag out to the field for the afternoon PE class. He dumped the contents of the bag on the ground, spilling out several softballs, bats, and gloves. Brown then appointed two of the students as team captains and told them to take turns picking members of their class to form two teams for a softball game.

Tobio didn't expect what happened next. All at once a small fight broke out as both captains wanted to pick him first for their team. A quick rock paper scissors session solved the problem. That had never happened to Tobio on the playgrounds in Japan. He had always been a shrimp of a child, and was always the last one picked for any game. Even here in Eureka, he was the shortest member of his class. Were his schoolmates just being nice to him for moral support, probably by the the instruction of their elders? Or did they really like him? Why was he so special?

Tobio's team got to bat first. Kevin Blake led off with a single, and the next two batters drew walks. Tobio had been put into the cleanup position of the batting order, something that he didn't understand either. They should have put him up last. He took his position at the plate and held the bat nervously. Someone had handed him the largest and heaviest bat which he felt sure was a mistake. He surprised himself when he picked it up, he was able to handle it just fine. Tobio let the first pitch go by him as he lined up the strike box in his mind. The second pitch was outside the box, and he stopped his swing just in time to avoid breaking his wrists and being charged with a second strike. His eyes followed the third pitch as it rolled out of the pitcher's hand toward the plate. Something clicked in his brain and his arms moved with precision to meet the ball with the fat end of the bat. He put his shoulder into the swing and felt the sting of the impact in his hands as the ball met the bat. Tobio heard his teammates yelling at the top of their lungs for him to run. He dropped the bat and took off down the first base line. The ball flew a good 500 feet before hitting the ground for a grand slam home run! Tobio triumphantly watched his teammates round the bases ahead of him. He finally crossed home plate where Kevin Blake gave him a high five on both hands.

Tobio was put into the shortstop position on the field. Again, he wondered why he had been given one of the most demanding positions in the game. He didn't want to let his teammates down, but he didn't feel up to the challenge. At the bottom of the first inning the score was 4-0 and Tobio's team quickly had pitcher problems, with the first three batters drawing walks. The next batter hit a sizzling grounder between second and third base. Tobio had started out on the wrong side of diamond and had to break into a quick run to intercept the ball before it could get by into the outfield. He surprised himself with his speed as he ran inward, and toward second base to grab the ball. He didn't hold onto it very long, as he fired a rifle like shot toward the first baseman, who relayed it back to second base where Tobio had already ran back to grab the ball before the runner could even reach the bag. He tagged the man out, and fired the ball home like a cannon, where Kevin was catching. Kevin's hands stung as the ball blasted into his glove, but he managed to get it out of the mitt, and tag the runner coming home out. Triple play! As Tobio came running in toward the dugout, Kevin met him with another two handed high five.

The game ended a bit less lopsided than it started with Tobio's team winning by 3 runs. Still, he had turned out to be the hero of the game, something that had never happened to him before.

"**Dad?"** Tobio called to his father.

"Yes, Tobio?" Tenma asked.

"I think something weird is going on with me. When we lived in Japan, I couldn't do anything right. All the other kids called me names because I was so small. Well here, everyone is so nice to me, even though I'm still a shrimp." Tobio said.

"Eureka is a special town, Tobio. Everyone here is smart, and we all work for a place that employees only very bright people. Smart people are above teasing their fellow human beings. We know we have to work together. That's all." Uma replied.

"There's something else though." Tobio quizzed. "I seem to be better at things now than before my accident. I'm not as weak and clumsy. I'm actually GOOD at baseball! How could that happen?"

"Well, you had a very long rest while your body rebuilt itself during your recuperation. I guess you've just got a good start on the right footing, so to speak. Why don't you just enjoy yourself and not question your good fortune?"

"I guess so." Tobio smiled. "I do have so many new good friends! I like it much better here than back in Japan!" Tobio leaped up and grabbed his father around his neck. Tenma returned the hug and the two of them felt the moment of warmth and love for each other.

**The resume **of one Dr. Acetylene Lamp landed on Douglas Fargo's desk. It had already been rubber stamped by Jo Lupo, who failed to come up with any security problems on the individual. Dr. Putzburger was looking for a replacement for his contract assistant, and there was an open Rec that needed to be filled. Douglas read through the resume and decided that he'd pass it on to Alan Putzburger for his take on it. As far as he was concerned the guy was qualified for the position. If he fit in with the man in charge, they'd hire him.


	17. Chapter 17

**A Eureka Moment**

**Chapter 17**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
_

"**Dr. Lamp**, now that I've outlined our Thorium reactor project to you, what do you think?" Dr. Putzburger asked.

"Well the idea of separate breeder and power chambers complicates the construction and actually could leave you with the possibility of a runaway breeder cycle. For a laboratory prototype where you wanted to fully instrument the operation of the reactor so you could measure efficiencies and have total control of your fuel parameters, it makes some sense, but you would never build such a reactor commercially. I would have designed a single chamber reactor with a common set of control rods and seed the Thorium with just enough starting U232 to get the breeder cycle going." Dr. Lamp replied.

"Very good, thank you." Putzburger replied. "Now then, you said you graduated from MIT in 1997 with a 5.0 GPI. I see you were employed at Exxon, I didn't know they had a nuclear program."

"Most of the major oil companies wised up to the fact that they were actually energy companies many years ago. My work for them was mostly theoretical studies on the feasibilities of their entering the nuclear power business, and the threat that nuclear power would have on their current energy sales." Lamp answered.

Putzburger leafed though his notes, and glanced at the resume again. He decided that he had no more questions.  
"Do you have any questions for me, Dr. Lamp?"

"Not really. I've done my homework on Global Dynamics and Eureka. I'm convinced that I'd like to work here if you would have me, and that I could make a big difference in your operations here." Lamp grinned.

"Very well then, we'll be getting in contact with you very quickly, one way or the other. Thank you for coming in to see us."

"**So,** how did the interview go with Dr. Lamp?" Douglas Fargo asked Alan Putzburger.  
"I'd like to hire him to replace Zachary Smith. He's got some good ideas that agree with my line of thinking for the power plant. I think we could get back on track quickly with his help."

"I'm willing to go along with your recommendation. I'll have an offer letter typed up and sent out as soon as possible." Dr. Fargo told him.

* * *

**Zachary Smith **looked up from his computer terminal.  
"Did you get the job?" he asked.

"I had them eating out of my hand." Lamp smiled. "I told you, I'm the real McCoy. I could have been one of them, but I got in a bit of trouble. It's easy to bullshit your way in when you're handing out more bull than shit."

"You didn't tell them about your work with Exxon-Mobile did you? That would have been a deal breaker." Zachary gasped.

"Sure I did. That job was out in the open, they would have found out about it if I had left it off my resume. Look, the oil companies have to be two faced, they can't reveal their relationship with the syndicate, and they all show themselves as energy companies with their hands in other areas. It makes sense, oil ain't gonna last forever, and they need to have a second cash cow when the first dries up. But until then, they are going to make as much money from oil as possible while jacking up the price and keeping the world hooked on it as the only clean energy source. And that's were the syndicate and us come in."

* * *

"**Do you have any** blueprints of Atom?" Zane asked.

"You mean the super robot that is Tobio?" Dr. Tenma replied. "Yes, I did bring those files with me from the IOS when I left. That project would have resulted in an android that was indistinguishable from a human being. I suppose you want to know exactly what systems Atom has?"

"Yes, I was curious about that. I've seen a few of the things he was able to do." Zane said.

"Very well. First of all, I refer to the robot itself as Atom, that was the name I gave to the project after it had become re-targeted as a replacement for my son, Tobio. As I told Andy, the original name for the super robot project was Cobalt. Understand that Atom has all of my son's memories and a good chunk of his actual brain software programmed into it. The robot really does think that it is my son. When I refer to him as Tobio, it is the living persona of my son." Tenma said.

"Yes, I think I understand that." Zane agreed.

"OK then. Atom functions as a human look alike. He can walk, talk, even eat. The robot has taste sensors, he can enjoy all the sensations of food just like a child Tobio's age can. Atom's systems can extract moisture from food, and break it down to obtain usable hydrocarbons and carbohydrates to burn in fuel cells to produce electrical power. What's left over is excreted in a manor similar to how we perform that function, so Tobio actually does use the water closet. I'm sorry if that was TMI. Atom can actually generate enough electrical power to run his basic systems this way, but his advanced functions require much more energy." Tenma continued.

"So what do you use for that, fusion power?" Zane asked.

"I considered that. The IOS had actually developed a miniature cold fusion battery. However something more exotic became available. Atom is powered by zero point vacuum energy. He will never need to be refueled, and could generate nearly infinite power. For practical reasons, I've limited it to 100,000 HP, but some of his systems could tap into even more power if necessary. You know he can fly using either jet or rocket engines in his legs. You've also seen the particle beam cannon in his arms. He has a pair of miniature rear facing Gatling guns mounted in his hips that shoot depleted Uranium shells. He also has high powered cutting lasers in the index finger of each hand. Atom can crank up his hearing to be as much as 10,000 times more sensitive than human ears. He can see in any wavelength of light from deep infrared to extreme ultraviolet, and in almost complete darkness. His eyes can also work in the X-ray region, and contain powerful flood lamps that can blind someone with thousands of candle power. He also has both telescopic and microscopic vision capability."

"My God!" Zane gasped. "He is a walking army."

"There's more. Atom is powerful enough to lift thousands of times his own weight. He could pick up a string of locomotives and lift them into orbit. You saw what he did with that 20 ton reactor. He could bend the Eiffel Tower into a pretzel. Atom's computer brain is fluent in over 100 languages, and has an IQ that is off the charts. Yet, despite all of this, he has the innocence of a ten year old child. Tobio's brain program was the missing link. It's what made the super robot practicable, and more important predictable. I shudder to think of releasing all of that destructive force on the world without having the regulator that keeps it sane." Tenma concluded.

"Then why did you block out Tobio's access to his abilities after he was repaired?" Zane wondered.

"I was second guessing myself, Zane. It may have been the wrong idea to give a ten year old boy such power. Yes, he has proved he has the wisdom to handle it, but he was also given the responsibility to do so. Childhood is so difficult as it is. Let's see how Atom with Tobio's mind handles that. What I really wanted to do with him when I came here was to just test that an AI with kokoro will interact with people. Andy is a special case, because he was implemented as an adult. I know you were involved with that along with Dr. Deacon, and you took a different approach with Kutcher's theories. I think my way is better, but I'm keeping that opinion to myself for now. Atom – Tobio is a test bed, and I think it will work better if we don't complicate matters by having the poor child have to be a superhero as well. I've left the back door open though. Tobio will be able to use his abilities if the need arises, but I've set that threshold as high as possible."

* * *

**Henry Deacon** stormed into Fargo's office, slamming the door open. This was totally out of his character, Henry was generally a very soft spoken individual who avoided confrontations.  
"I'm a bit worried about your choice of hire for Dr. Putzburger's assistant, Douglas."

"Henry! You sure seem overly worked up about this. I can assure you that he's been vetted by security and more important, Dr. Putzburger likes him." Douglas replied.

"Putzburger isn't the best judge of character. He liked Zachary Smith, and look what happened!" Henry said.

"Unless you can give me a good reason to fire him that stands up, my hands are tied here. The man is qualified. Class of '97 at MIT. He's written several white papers on nuclear power. The only black mark anyone could find was a single rejection for a proposal he wrote to the NRC for more liberal licensing of nuclear power plants. If he had submitted that before the Fukushima disaster it might have even been considered." Fargo explained.

"Well, I'm going to watch him like a hawk as long as I'm going to be associated with the experimental power plant." Henry said.

"Yeah about that. Alan Putzburger has asked me if I could find you something else to do. He doesn't want your help anymore on the reactor. He said that he and Dr. Lamp are going to take care of the design by themselves, and that if they need any computer advice they will go to Dr. Tenma. Alan thinks that the computer issues are better handed by a robotics AI expert than a control systems engineer." Fargo added.

"I bet that's Lamp talking!" Dr. Deacon yelled. "I'm going to warn Tenma about this."

"Dr. Tenma is no dummy. I'm sure he will spot any funny business on Lamp's part, assuming your suspicions are correct, which I doubt." Fargo replied.

"Probably." Henry said as he quickly left the office.

* * *

**Dr. Putzburger **studied the modified design documents that Dr. Lamp had just handed him. These were still only top level plans, but they captured the essence of the design proposal.  
"Very interesting, Dr. Lamp! Your modifications bring the design closer to a shippable implementation. The fuel assembly combines both the required starting fuel and the Thorium in a single package. With enough of the fuel rods inserted the reactor can be regulated in all modes by a single set of control rods. And you've combined the starting, breeder and power cycles into a single mode. Genius!"

"Thank you, Dr. Putzburger. This will require some new software, and as I've indicated before, I think we should use a robotic AI approach." Lamp replied.

"Yes, I'll get in touch with Dr. Tenma this afternoon. Let me get his thoughts on the matter. Then as soon as we can work out a complete set of plans, we can start on the construction of a prototype reactor, and start to work on the design of the fuel assemblies."

* * *

**Later that evening **Zachary Smith listened to Acetylene Lamp describe the day's activities at GD.  
"You gave them a perfectly safe reactor design. In fact, I can't find anything wrong with it. If they build that, the syndicate will really be pissed!" Smith said.

"That's the whole idea, you idiot. The design of that reactor is almost foolproof, but it can be sabotaged very easily. That's where you come in. I've got Putzburger to agree on an AI based controller instead of a process based on. You should be able to hide a few fatal flaws in that software rather easily I would think. And I will be able to sabotage the reactor hardware itself in a subtle way. Those flaws will remain undiscovered until the power plant has been running for a few months. It will fail in a rather dramatic way once everyone has gotten used to the idea that it is running safely. Having it self destruct during the initial startup was not a good idea. That's when it would have been expected to fail." Lamp laughed.

Smith smiled. "Yes, I see what you mean. We'll take is slow this time then. I hope the syndicate is cool with this."

"Don't worry, I've got them under control for now. Eureka is not going to become the new power broker in the energy market, that will remain with OPEC, and we will become rather rich." Lamp replied.


	18. Chapter 18

**A Eureka Moment**

**Chapter 18**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
_

**Dr. Tenma **was in his office reading though his email. Tobio sat on the floor with a laptop computer watching a "Blackjack" anime on YouTube. It was a school holiday, but Tenma was at work in main research building at Global Dynamics, so he let his son come to work with him. This wasn't the first time the boy had been there as there were enough official and unofficial school holidays in Eureka.

There was a knock on the door, which was more than slightly ajar revealing the face of Dr. Henry Deacon.

"Hello Henry, what can I do for you?" Tenma asked.

"Haven't you read my emails?" He asked.

"You know I've opened them, you've attached return receipts to them. I haven't _replied_ to them though." Tenma answered.

"So you ARE going to work with Dr. Lamp on the reactor?"

"I'm working with Dr. Putzburger on the reactor. He has provided me with the parameters that need to be watched and controlled. I think Dr. Lamp is reviewing my design along with Alan, but I haven't yet needed to consult with Lamp, and he hasn't spoken to me since the first day. So what is your problem?" Tenma asked.

"You are NOT a nuclear engineer, nor are you a process control expert. What makes you qualified to design the software for a nuclear reactor system?" Henry demanded.

"Jealous are we? Look, I know this was your project, and that a good chunk of it was your idea. I get the idea that Fargo is more impressed with Putzburger's work in nuclear physics than yours. No judgment against you on my part mind you, it's just my observation on how Fargo see things. Anyway, Putzburger felt that he wanted an intelligent control system, rather than a preprogrammed CNC like process controller. I think I understand his logic there. All I'm doing is providing a system with the intelligence, he is providing the logic required for the nuclear control. So I really don't need to be a nuclear engineer to write this software." Tenma explained.

"You do realize that Putzburger was manipulated into that line of reasoning by Dr. Lamp, don't you?" Henry said.

"So what if he was? It's still a logical way to design the control system. Look just what DO you have against Dr. Lamp? Tenma asked.

"Look Uma; I can't prove this, and Jo Lupo hasn't been able to find anything on Lamp either, but I think he was the connection to Zachary Smith." Henry whispered.

"That's a serious charge against the man. Can you elaborate?"

"Jo Lupo is certain that Zachary Smith was hired by a mysterious syndicate to sabotage our power plant. This alleged power group is supposedly made up of top officials from most of the major oil companies, OPEC, and has ties to the Mafia, and various Tongs. They've bribed many key government officials and probably have made huge contributions to the re-election campaigns of many members of congress. Their goal is to keep the world dependent on oil by suppressing any important development of alternative power sources, especially nuclear power. Rumors have it that the disasters at TMI and Chernobyl were of their doing. They'd love to claim responsibility for Fukushima, but that one was mostly an act of God, and a little bit of stupid engineering."

"OK, I'm not surprised at the conspiracy theory here, but what's Lamp's connection?" Tenma asked.

"Lamp has done work for some of the major oil companies. He's not trying to hid that, it's on his resume. What he has hidden is where the money came from, and just HOW much he was paid. Jo hasn't been able to crack the money trail, and she hasn't convinced her NSA friends to look into it. I have some hacker contacts that have told me, unofficially, that they have hacked into some syndicate databases and Lamp's name popped up. I know that's not much to go on, but believe me, these hacker friends of mine are good. I haven't yet got a bum steer from them." Henry added.

"So you're telling me that Lamp hired Smith to infect our computers with viruses so the power plant reactor would blow?" Tenma asked.

"I can't prove that, but yes. Don't forget that Smith also sabotaged the breeder reactor to produce contaminated starting fuel for the reactor. I'm certain that Lamp was acting as an intermediate contact between Smith and the syndicate. Now that we are restarting the program in spite of the failure, Lamp must have seen it necessary to get involved personally." Henry answered.

"If you're right, shouldn't we call in the FBI, or at least involve Jo? Tenma asked.

"I will at least inform Jo of my newest information, and let her decide what to do. Jo Lupo is very good at what she does with security." Henry said.

* * *

**The next day, Tobio **stood at the edge of the pool and looked down into the clear water. Kevin Blake stood behind him waiting. Finally he poked Tobio gently in the back.  
"Well, are you going to jump in?"

"I'm thinking about it!" Tobio said. Finally after Kevin poked him just a little bit harder he pushed off from the starting platform and made a perfect entry into the pool. Tobio glided along the surface of the water kicking and stroking along. Kevin watched as his classmate reached the far side of the pool to duck under and kick off from the far wall. He came back up to the surface and kept swimming toward Kevin, finally touching the wall and pulling himself out of the water. Kevin looked up at the clock and his jaw dropped.

"So how did I do?" Tobio asked. He wasn't the least bit out of breath.

"Don't look now dude, but I think you just set a school time record!" Kevin gasped.

Sgt Brown had been watching from the side lines, timing some of his students using a hand held stop watch. He had clicked the timepiece as Tobio touched the wall and nearly dropped the watch.

"Hey Tobio! I want you to join the swim team, and I'm NOT taking no for an answer!" the teacher yelled.

* * *

**Jo Lupo **entered Dr. Fargo's office to find Dr. Deacon already there.  
"I got your message Fargo. What's up?"

"Henry has made some serious accusations against Dr. Lamp. His charges are based on a money trail that some hackers have dug up. He says that Lamp is part of an oil sponsored syndicate that has been behind various nuclear accidents, including ours." Douglas said.

"I know, Henry has told me all about it. I'm going to tell you the same thing I told him. Those hacker reports are no proof of anything. Lamp has already given me his financial records and they include payments from oil companies. Legitimate organizations mind you, and payment was for research about nuclear power vs other fuels. Lamp is an expert on nuclear energy and was the perfect man to evaluate it as a threat to the oil industry. Come on, in every industry companies research their competition. That's not illegal. I haven't been able to find a link between Dr. Lamp and any syndicate. " Jo said.

"Don't tell me you're going to ignore the possible threat?" Henry said.

"Look I intend to watch Dr. Lamp carefully. He's a newcomer here and hasn't yet earned the trust of my security team. However I can't have such a tight dragnet thrown over him so as to interfere with the work that he's doing for Dr. Putzburger. We will take every measure we can, and Dr. Lamp won't be aware of us. If Lamp is dirty, we will catch him in the act. But, I think this is going to turn out to be a witch hunt, and a waste of my time." Lupo concluded.

* * *

**For the next several weeks, **Dr. Tenma worked closely with Dr. Putzburger as he designed the AI for the new computer systems in the experimental power plant. On occasion Acetylene Lamp would stop by and look over Tenma's work, but he rarely spoke to him. One day, however Lamp did try to start a conversation with Uma.  
"I've been looking over your AI system design for the power plant Dr. Tenma. Dr. Putzburger and I are pleased with your design so far." Lamp said in a pleasant tone.

Tenma looked up at Lamp. He wore thick glasses in a heavy dark frame. His wrinkled forehead seemed to hang over the top of his glass frames.

"Thank you, Dr. Lamp. I'm glad that you approve, but this is the first time you've spoken to me directly since the day I first started on this project." Tenma said.

"If I've been rude, then let me apologize." Lamp smiled. "I've been mostly doing the design on the reactor itself, and Alan is more of the software type than I am, so he's been the interface with you on this project. I have, of course, been reviewing your work myself and giving my input to Dr. Putzburger. Now if you will excuse me, I need to do some more design work on the fuel rod specifications." Dr. Lamp waved goodbye as he walked away.

"Thanks for stopping by!" Tenma called back.

"_Seems like a pleasant enough fellow._"Tenma thought.

**Time passed, **and things still seemed to running smoothly in Eureka. Dr. Tenma was still working on the AI for the computers that would run the reconstructed experimental power plant. Zane Donovan was now working with Dr. Henry Deacon on another project, though he spent some time with Dr. Tenma, assisting him with software testing.

Tobio still didn't remember a thing about his adventure with the reactor, or that he was not just a ten year old child. He was doing well in his school work, and was enjoying the PE class because everything was easy and natural for him. His classmates knew all about him, but kept the secret to themselves, as their parents and teachers had told them to do.

Dr. Deacon kept digging on the Internet for proof of Dr. Lamp's involvement with the reactor sabotage, but could find nothing. Jo Lupo and lost interest in the detective work, and insisted the Henry was on a wild goose chase. Dr. Fargo and Dr. Putzburger were satisfied with Dr. Lamp's work on the power plant. Construction of the reactor had started. The first assemblies were being machined and site preparation was nearing completion. The start of the actual assembly of the new unit was now only a week away.

* * *

**The transformation** of Deputy Andy now seemed to be complete. Dr. Tenma gave him a complete checkup and was quite pleased.  
"Your weight has stabilized and all of your systems are now balanced. You are now an advanced android with the same abilities of flight, vision and hearing that I had designed into Atom. You don't have nearly his horsepower output, the nanites couldn't perform that kind of modification without the installation of some advanced raw materials. Still, you are now ready to take care of any high tech menace that Eureka could come up with." Tenma told the deputy.

Andy looked in the mirror. He liked his new look; leaner, a bit shorter, and a new hair style. It was like a man in his late twenties suddenly becoming eighteen again, something George Burns had often sang about. He looked like he was in his prime.  
"Thank you Dr. Tenma. I wish I had been built like this in the first place." Andy said.

* * *

**Dr. Lamp **had rented a small house on the outskirts of Eureka for his residence. He had wanted to stay out of sight when he wasn't working at GD, and he needed a place to hide Zachary Smith. The home had a two level basement, since it had been built with a fallout shelter during the days of the cold war. It was one of the few such homes remaining in Eureka. Zachary was hold out in in the bomb shelter, studying the AI source code that Acetylene Lamp had been secreting out of the power plant computer as Dr. Tenma completed it.  
"So Zach what do you think? Can you plant a time bomb in Dr. Tenma's system?" Lamp asked.

"Sure no problem. I've already started to work on it. A few weeks after they get the power plant up and running you can put my spiked code into the computer. We'll sneak out of town and wait. Piece of cake!" Smith smiled.

**Like a Phoenix, **the new reactor rose over the ashes of the old one in the experimental power plant. Externally, it looked much like the old one, a bit wider and not quite as tall, but otherwise quite similar. Putzburger and Lamp personally watched each part being assembled over in the Nuclear Engineering section of GD, and they also directed the assembly of the reactor in the power plant. The largest parts, the upper and lower shells of the reactor were lowered into the building through the temporary roof. Once the largest parts were sitting on the floor of the reactor room, the new roof was constructed and the building was sealed off.

Acetylene Lamp worked with Putzburger, checking each part of the reactor before it added to the assembly. He had gained the elder doctor's trust and was able to substitute a critical part of the control rod assembly with one that he had secretly modified. It would work just like the real thing until the computer commanded the reactor to make a rapid scram from near full power. Then the control assembly would jam wide open and self destruct. The reactor would not be able to be shut down without pulling it apart, and it would take a rad hardened robot to do that. Lamp had also modified a critical part in the cooling system valve. Again it would work fine with its fault undetected until the critical moment. Between the two subtle bits of sabotage and Smith's computer hack he would be able to make the reactor melt down on his command.


	19. Chapter 19

**A Eureka Moment**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
Eureka is a production of the SciFi network._

**Chapter 19**

**A letter **arrived in the mail from Japan for Tobio. Dr. Tenma called carried it into Tobio's room and sat down on the bed next to him.  
"This just arrived for you son."

"It's from God Father." Tobio smiled. He tore open the envelope and two photos dropped out, one of "God father" Ochanomizu, and the other one was a street view in front of the Institute of Science. The enclosed letter was short, wishing Tobio and his father well. Ochanomizu said he had been very happy to see them both again during his recent visit.

"It was very good to see God Father again. Did he come just to see me in the hospital?" Tobio asked.

Dr. Tenma thought carefully before answering. He didn't want to tell too much of an untruth.  
"He knew you needed healing and that we were in Eureka for that purpose. I'm glad he came, he was a big help to me. Once you recovered, he had to return to Japan. He has an important job there you know, as the new head of the Institute of Science. See, he sent us a picture of the place."

* * *

**The day finally arrived** for the startup of the experimental power plant. The reactor was fully fueled and had been tested at lower power levels for several weeks. Jo Lupo had Deputy Andy hang around the power plant just in case. Dr. Fargo and Dr. Blake both watched as the reactor was being tested. Zane Donovan inspected everything as well. If Dr. Lamp had tried to sabotage anything, none of the experts could find a thing.

The power plant was silently put into operation without any fanfare. This time the press was not directly involved, Putzburger and Fargo prepared a press release bulletin and put it on the news wires themselves. Press coverage was space, with mostly page 10 coverage at best in the newspapers. Even Eureka's own news media hardly gave it much coverage.

It was in the end, a non-event. The reactor powered up nicely and the turbines came on line. Eureka once again disconnected itself from the State power grid and became self powered. Putzburger was quite happy. Dr. Lamp monitored the power plant's operation along with Dr. Putzburger, but he was rarely out of Henry's sight whenever he showed up at the reactor. Dr. Deacon still didn't trust him.

* * *

**Zachary Smith **looked up from his computer terminal at Dr. Lamp.  
"Where's my sandwich?" he asked.

Lamp tossed him a two foot long submarine he had picked up from Cafe Diem.  
"Here you go Zach. Now how is our little computer bomb coming?"

"I just finished it. I still have some static testing to do, but by tomorrow you should be able to load it into the computers at the power plant."

"I'll have to do that at night after the day shift calls it quits. I'm still being watched whenever I go over there. Can you do something about the security cameras in the building?" Lamp asked.

"Yeah, I've got that figured out. I can hack into Lupo's security system and put a few of those cameras on a loop file. Whenever someone punches up one of them they will see the same half hour of video playing over and over again. Since nothing goes on in that building after normal work hours, it won't be suspicious. I can also disable the motion detectors and entry sensors as well. We should be able to get in there unnoticed." Smith bragged.

"OK then, it's just a matter of when. Probably in another week or two. Listen, I don't want anyone being able to find us when we leave here. Leave your cell phone behind, I've picked up a couple of prepaid units under phony Id's that we won't activate until we are out of here. We're going to need another car so I've arranged to have one waiting at an auto bone yard just outside of Eureka. The syndicate gave me the address of the place, it's owned by someone under their control. There's even a car crusher so we can get rid of the one I'm driving now. No evidence left behind." Lamp scowled.

* * *

**Henry Deacon **had been away from his computer all day taking care of mechanical issues for the new project he was working on. It was very late in the evening when he finally got to check his email. One of his good hacker contacts had followed up on an idea that he had a few days ago. As soon as Henry opened the email and read the attachments he was both elated and dumbfounded.  
"_I am an idiot!_ _I should have thought of this sooner_" he thought. "_All this time I was looking under the wrong rock!"_

The first attachment was a PDF file of a photographic copy of a Department of Justice secret document. It was a document from the Witness protection program, containing information about Dr. Lamp. Lamp had formerly been known as Geta Sankaku, a low life type that had been relocated by the government for agreeing to testify against some heavy weight mob figures. Reading though the second document, a collection of dirt dug up by the FBI on Geta Sankaku; Henry discovered that the man who was now known as Dr. Lamp, had been linked by the FBI to several syndicate groups seeking to control various energy and high tech commodities. In fact, Sankaku was a member in high standing of the syndicate that Jo Lupo had suspected was responsible for the first reactor's sabotage. But the best part was that the mobster that Geta testified against was never convicted. His trial had ended in a mistrial after the DA found evidence of jury tampering. The guy was released on bond by mistake and left the country. It almost sounded like the syndicate pulled some strings with the mob to get the FBI to hid Sankaku under a new identity.

"_I was right all along, Lamp is dirty._" Henry laughed to himself. Suddenly he felt ill. He just remembered that the next day would be the anniversary date of the Three Mile Island incident. Dr. Lamp would probably set his planned sabotage in motion tomorrow. He had probably planted the seeds in the power plant computer already.

"_I've got to get over there and inspect the systems, and I will need Tenma's help,_" he realized.

* * *

"**Your cover has been blown!" **Zachary told Lamp.

"What are you talking about?" Acetylene asked.

"It's a good thing I tapped into Lupo's office with my hacking. Using her security systems I placed taps on Dr. Deacon's email. I was sure Deacon was still after the truth. He had a brainstorm to dig into the Witness Protection program records. Some hacker friend of his just emailed him all of your dirty laundry." Zach said.

"Those records are supposed to be sealed and impossible to get." Lamp moaned.

"A good enough hacker could always find something. I know I could. Now what do we do?"

"We have no choice. We have to do it tonight. Actually it's good timing, you do know what day tomorrow is don't you? I should have thought of that earlier. Pack your things up. We are going to break into the power plant as soon as possible." Lamp said.

* * *

**Henry Deacon **rang Dr. Tenma's doorbell and hammered on the door with his fist until Uma opened it.

"Henry, do you know what time it is? Uma asked.

"Yes I do, unfortunately. Get dressed. We need to run down to the power plant and do an inspection. I was right, I finally found the dirt on Dr. Lamp. Only that's NOT his name. It seems our government relocated a syndicate heavy weight under the witness protection act, probably also had his appearance surgically altered. Once I found his former name all the pieces fell together. Tomorrow is the anniversary date of TMI and I bet that Lamp has already sabotaged the reactor to fail sometime tomorrow. I need your help in inspecting the computer over there." Henry said.

"OK, give me a few minutes to get dressed." Tenma agreed.

Tobio had been standing out of sight in the hallway, listening. He looked outside and saw Henry's truck parked in front of the house. Tobio climbed out of a window and hid in the back of the truck. He didn't want to stay home alone in the house, he wanted to be with his father.

* * *

**Over at the power plant, **Acetylene Lamp and Zachary Smith had just finished planting the computer bomb software. Lamp tightened a few bolts on the plumbing to the coolant valves after closing them down to the bare minimum safe value. He used a welding torch to make sure they couldn't be turned back.

"There, I'm done. How about your end?" Lamp asked.

Smith was still typing on the terminal.  
"Just setting the detonation time for early tomorrow. They will probably declare an emergency here at the same time that the emergency was declared at TMI. If we hurry we can be in the next state when it goes" Zachary said.

Out of the corner of his eye, through a window, Lamp saw the headlamps of an approaching car.  
"Someone's coming. Hid in the closet with me so we can get the jump on them if they come in here." Lamp told Smith.

Smith pulled his USB disk from the computer panel and closed down the terminal. He turned off the lights in the reactor room and joined Lamp who was already in the closet. Lamp removed a small bottle from his pocket and soaked two handkerchiefs with the fluid contents. "Chloroform and Ether mixture." He explained to Zack. "For our guests."

**Henry's truck **pulled up to the front of the power plant. He didn't notice Lamp's car parked a few hundred yards away in a dark spot. Henry and Uma ran into the building, it seemed deserted. Tobio climbed out of the back of the truck and watched.

"Looks like nobody's been here." Henry said. "Check the computer for any signs of tampering, I'll inspect the hardware."

While Uma was occupied at the terminal and Henry was looking at the reactor relay panel, Lamp and Smith quietly snuck out of the closet. Lamp held one of the chloroform soaked handkerchiefs over Tenma's nose and mouth from behind him, until Uma passed out and fell to the floor. At the same time Zachary overpowered Henry with the same tactic. There was some rope in the closet and Lamp tied Henry and Tenma up to one of the upright beams supporting the roof inside the reactor room.

"That will hold them. When this thing blows they will get the full effect of it!" Lamp laughed

Tobio quietly crept into the building after Tenma and Deacon. He saw his father and Henry being tied up, and he quickly looked for a place to hid. Before he could get out of sight, Lamp and Smith ran out of the reactor room and spotted him.

Lamp grabbed Tobio, who fought hard to get away. Zachary gave him a hand and between the two of them they grabbed Tobio and subdued him. They dragged him outside, kicking and screaming.  
"Damn kid! Can't leave him behind as a witness. We'll have to take him with us." Lamp said.

Lamp reached into his pocket while Zach held Tobio. Lamp found some cable ties which he used to bind the boys hands. Acetylene Lamp then opened the trunk of his car, grabbed the boy, and tossed him into the trunk, slamming it shut.  
"There, we'll dispose of him along with the car. Get in, we're leaving!" Lamp told Smith.

"No, he's only a kid. You can't do that to him!" Smith protested.

"Are you going to get in my way here?" Lamp replied. "Now get in the car!"

Zachary made a grab for Lamp's car keys. Acetylene punched him in the face knocking him to the ground. Zachary tried to get up but Lamp had already pulled a Luger from under his belt. He fired one shot, right between Zach's eyes. Zachary fell to the ground, dead. Lamp picked up his body and threw it in the back seat of the car.

Acetylene got in the car and drove off. It was dark inside of the trunk and Tobio was scared. He knew he was going to be killed but he couldn't do anything about it. He banged on the side of the car and the trunk lid screaming "Let me out of here!" again and again.

Lamp pulled the car into the junk yard. He planed on crushing the car into a tiny cube of metal, with the boy inside. A neat way to get rid of the vehicle and the only witness against him, besides the two men that were going to be irradiated to death. Lamp parked the car next to the crusher and walked over to the control panel. He inserted the key he had been given and turned on the machinery. Using the joy stick, he operated the overhead magnetic crane and picked up the automobile. The electromagnet grabbed the car by its roof and lifted it off the ground. Lamp maneuvered the car over the crusher and dropped it in. He then activated the hydraulics. This part of the system was automatic. Six heavy fingers of steel started pressing against the car to crush it. When it finished, just a cube a less than two feet on each side would remain.

Inside the trunk, Tobio could hear the machinery of the crusher running. The car moaned and groaned around him as the metal was distorted by the heavy fingers of the crusher. The trunk twisted and Tobio could feel the space he was in getting smaller. Now he was in total panic. He had to bend his legs over his chest as the available space inside the trunk shrunk around him. Tobio felt himself being confined and knew his life was over. "I don't want to die!" he screamed as the crusher pressed the car even more tightly around him. He felt pain as his body was being compressed tightly and he knew that he had only seconds before he would be no more.

* * *

Lamp watched as the crusher was about to finish the job. He stepped back from the control panel to take in the entire view of the machine about to finish the deadly work. Suddenly, there was an explosion. The heavy metal fingers of the car crusher blasted apart and flew up into the air. Metal shrapnel from the car flew in all directions. Without warning an object flew out of the middle of the fireball at supersonic speed. It hit Lamp square in the chest and his body exploded into a cloud of hamburger.

* * *

Tobio strained against the walls that were closing in on him. His eyes were clamped shut from the pain. Deep within his brain the threshold had been crossed. Autonomic systems switched on and Atom's full 100,000 HP came on line. Escape or die was the order of the moment. Atom's rocket engines fired at full power and the inside of vehicle filled with the exhaust gases. The pressure built up to the bursting point. The rocket engines blasted Atom out of the rear of the vehicle and through the solid steel walls of the crusher. His eyes still clamped shut, Atom flew just above the ground at high Mach speed, like a naval shell fired from a battleship. He slammed into something, and it felt warm and wet. Atom opened his eyes in time to avoid hitting a building, he flew straight up into the air as he snapped the cable ties around his arms with shear brute strength. He looked behind him and saw the fireball of the car crusher exploding.

He was free! Tobio's memory flooded back to him. He knew who he was and what he could do. He remembered Kevin's rocket and Ethan's drone. It all came back to him, from the very first day that he woke up in the IOS back in Japan. He remembered lifting the reactor into space to let it explode.

"_Oh no!_" He also remembered that it was happening all over again, unless he would be in time to stop it! Atom let his mind reach out, and he felt Andy's being. He planted a message there and he received an answer back. Atom set a course back to the power plant. He hoped they would be in time.

* * *

_A.N. The question of Atom's morality has often come up. Now Atom's conscience may have to deal with his actions, even though he really had no choice in the matter._

_Please leave a review, and let me know what you think._


	20. Chapter 20

**A Eureka Moment**

_This is my first Eureka x Astro Boy crossover story._

_Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
Eureka is a production of the SciFi network._

**Chapter 20**

**Deputy Andy** was almost sleeping in the back room of the sheriff's station when he heard Atom's voice in the back of his head. "_Andy, come quick to the power plant. We NEED you!_"

"_Is that you Atom?_" Andy telepath'ed back. "_I thought you were gone from Tobio._"

"_I was never really gone, just sorta sleeping. I'm awake now!_" Atom's voice in Andy's head replied.

"_OK, I'm on my way! I'll meet you there!_" Andy answered back.

Andy got up and quickly slipped his boots on. Looking in the mirror, he saw he was only wearing his skin tight black undies, but he had a feeling that if he tried flying in his uniform it would only rip off in flight anyway. Well, if it was good enough for Atom …. Andy was in such a hurry that he forgot what he was doing and blasted skyward, right though the skylight in the roof! He made it to the power plant in less than a minute.

It was still dark, sunrise was still about an hour off and the inside of the building was dark. The front door was locked and Andy simply ripped the door off of its hinges to gain entry. Once inside he saw Dr. Tenma and Dr. Deacon tied up back to back against an upright column. Andy quickly untied them. Henry was just starting to come out of his stupor when he saw the Deputies face.

"Oh my Gawd!"

"Don't worry Henry, it's me Andy. Atom called me telepathically and told me you guys were in trouble."

Henry slowly got up and tried to clear his head. He slowly remembered what had happened and tried to shake Dr. Tenma awake. Uma opened his eyes slowly.  
"Damn! That Chloroform was strong stuff. My head is pounding!"

"Quick, Dr. Tenma. We've got to stop whatever Dr. Lamp did to the system. Go check the computer with me." Henry said.

The two engineers quickly typed away at the terminals. Tenma quickly found an extra daemon running in the background with a timer thread set to go off in a matter of minutes. He killed the processes and continued checking for more damage.

Henry ran a compete systems check. Tenma turned to look at how he was doing and saw a look of panic on the doctor's face.

"There was a time bomb about to go off that I just defused with minutes to spare. Are we safe?" Uma asked.

"You defused the 'Coup de grâce' program, so we have some time. Unfortunately though, it looks like the runaway train has left the station." Henry said.

"What do you mean?" Tenma asked.

Andy moved closer. Maybe there would be something he could do.

"I don't have time to give you a complete lecture in nuclear reactors, so here's the short version. Inside of the reactor are thin metal pipe rods containing the nuclear fuel. Each rod is shielded from the rest by control rods that absorb free neutrons. With all of the control rods in the down position almost all free neutrons given off by the radioactive fuel are absorbed and only background fission occurs. As the rods are pulled out of the fuel bundle more free neutrons are allowed access to the fuel, and we have a controlled amount of fission. The reactor is at full power with the rods in the complete upright position. That is exactly where they are now. The problem is that the control program has tried to scram the reactor, that is to drop the control rods to the full down position all at once, and it didn't happen. I've been looking through the reactor plans on line, I bet Lamp sabotaged the control linkages to those rods. The only way to scram the reactor now, would be to open up an access plate and yank out the linkages."

Tenma slowly thought about that and replied.  
"I take it that is something that would not be safe for a person to attempt."

"Correct, the RAD exposure would be fatal, even if you were wearing a Hasmat suit, which we don't seem to have. Besides we have a second problem. The turbines are now running at full power to absorb the heat from the reactor. The excess electric power has to go somewhere, it appears that the state power grid is absorbing that at the moment. However the heat exchanger in the turbine room can't handle it all, the excess heat has to go somewhere. There is a secondary heat exchanger in this room, those pipes overhead siphon the excess heat from the coolant to it. It seems there is a valve stuck in those pipes, we need to free it." Henry said.

Tenma's eyes followed the pipeline to the back of the room where two large round valve handles hung from the pipes. "Over there?" he asked.

"Right!" Dr. Deacon ran over to the valves and attempted to turn the control wheels.

"Damn! He's welded them shut!" Henry yelled.

"I'll take care of that!" Andy said, walking over to the valves.

Andy used a finger tip laser to soften the beads of the welds. He then grabbed the control wheel and pulled with all his might. The valves slowly responded to his brute strength and opened.

"That did it, the core temperature is dropping. We still have to scram the reactor though. It's been weakened from running this long at full power so it can't safely run at that power level very much longer without damage, even with the cooling mostly restored." Henry said.

"Show me what to do" Andy said. "I can yank out the control linkage with you two safely behind the shielded glass walls."

"No Andy, you are not RAD hardened. I don't know what would happen to your systems." Tenma said. "Atom IS RAD hardened, but he isn't here."

"We don't have time to wait for him." Henry said. "The core temperature is slowly climbing. If the weakened inner containment vessel cracks from the heat, the reactor will start to melt down."

"Are you sure you want to do this Andy?" Tenma asked.

"Yes, I guess I have to" Andy responded.

"OK then Andy." Henry explained. "You need to use a wrench to remove the bolts holding the access cover to gain access to the inner containment vessel. Then there is another cover that needs to be removed to gain access to the reactor's core vessel. On top of that is the master linkage to the control rods. Two bolts hold that in place. Once the final bolt is removed the rods will fall down into place. Once you remove the second plate you will be exposed to radiation from the reactor. Try to do this as quickly as possible, and then put both access covers back. There is an anti-radiation shower in the back of the room. The liquid in there will absorb the radiation to cleanse you off. If you work quickly, you may be all right."

Dr. Tenam and Dr. Deacon walked out of the glass shielded portion of the reactor room and watched through the clear lead glass panels as Andy removed the outer access cover. He then reached inside the outer vessel of the reactor with the tools to remove the inner access cover. Radiation warning alarms sounded inside of the room.

Andy's vision blurred. His eyes were not designed to work under the bombardment of the high energy particles pouring out of the reactor. He used his sense of touch to locate the two bolts holding the linkage between the rods and the sabotaged control unit. He felt like he was blanking out as he pulled the last bolt free. Andy heard and felt the control rods fall in mass. The reactor shut down just as Andy landed on the floor, unconscious.

**Atom landed** just outside of the power plant. Lamp had driven him a good 75 miles out of town when he had escaped from the trunk of his car in the crusher. Tobio's clothes had been burned and torn off during his flight to freedom. He hoped that Andy had beat him here and had been able to help. As he ran into the building he saw Dr. Tenma and Dr. Deacon standing outside the glass shielding walls surrounding the reactor. Andy lay on the ground next to the reactor.

"What happened to him?" Atom asked.

"He unjammed the linkage to the control rods to scram the reactor. He had to open the reactor's containment shielding to do that and he was exposed to the radiation. It seems that he was even more sensitive to that than we thought." Henry said.

"We need to get him out of there, and to close up the reactor. Andy wasn't RAD hardened. YOU are!" Tenma said.

"You should have waited for me then!" Atom said.

"We didn't think we could, and Andy insisted on doing the job." Henry said.

"Alright, let me in there and I will finish the job and get Andy out of there!" Atom said.

Uma and Henry left the building and Atom quickly opened the shielded door into the glass walled area, and shut it behind him. He pulled the Deputy over to the radiation cleanup shower and turned it on. Atom then went back to the reactor to close up the access panels. He wasn't quite tall enough to reach, so he hovered next to it using his jets. Once the panels were closed the radiation count inside the shielded part of the room began to drop. When it fell below the danger zone, Atom dragged a soaking wet Andy out of the shielded part of the room.

Henry double checked the deputy with a Geiger counter and nodded.  
"He's clean." he said.

"Let's get him back to my laboratory. I hope I can revive him." Dr. Tenma said.

**Andy **was laid down on the same operating table that Tobio had been on not that long ago. Henry called Jo Lupo and Sheriff Carter on the phone and brought them up to date on Dr. Lamp and what nearly happened at the power plant. While Tenma was working on Andy; Jo Lupo, Jack Carter, and Dr. Allison Blake entered the lab.

"I told you all along I was right about Dr. Lamp!" Henry told Jo. "If we had done a reverse lookup on the DOJ records we would have found him out sooner."

"Except for the fact that those records are sealed and I would have needed either an act of congress or a low friend in a high place to access them." Jo said.

"Well I had one of the latter," Henry replied with a smirk on his face.

Atom filled them in on what he remembered happening at the power plant, including Lamp's murder of Zachary Smith. "I think I can find my way back to the auto junk yard. I was in the trunk of Lamp's car during that trip and I didn't have a GPS fix on it until I broke free. unfortunately, I was more concerned with making my way back to Eureka than remembering where I'd been. It took me a while to get my bearings on the way back too. That's why I didn't make it in time to save Andy." he sobbed.

Carter took a good look at Atom and made a face.  
"What is that slim all over the top of your head?"

Atom used his right hand to feel the top of his head and made a sour expression.  
"Yuck. I remember hitting something when I escaped from the car crusher. I was a bit too busy after that to think about it." He said.

Allison Blake opened her purse and removed a small glass tube with a stopper. She used a small metal medical spatula to scrape a sample of the stuff off of Atom's head and deposited it into the tube, and corked it shut.  
"I'll examine this in my lab later."

"It's almost daylight out now." Carter said. "I should get over to the junk yard where Atom escaped from the car and look for evidence. I'll put out an APB on Dr. Lamp. Atom, will you come with me in my Jeep and help me find that junk yard?"

"I could fly you there Sheriff." Atom said.

"No thanks. Speed isn't of the essence for this." Carter said.

"I'll come with you then." Lupo added.

It took them a little over an hour and a half to find the junk yard. It was outside of Carter and Lupo's jurisdiction, but they felt justified in checking it out.

The remains of the car crusher were scattered over a wide area. Lupo had a chemical test kit to identify blood. She found traces of it on some of the larger bits of metal that had once been an automobile.  
"Here's proof there was a body in the car, probably Zachary Smith." she said.

Carter looked around. The junk yard was unpaved and the only fresh tire tracks were those of the automobile that Lamp had driven into the yard. There were no fresh tracks of any vehicle leaving. Parked not far from the car crusher, was a late model Ford that looked like it had been prepped for a quick getaway. The driver side door was unlocked, and Carter quickly found a set of keys hidden behind the sun visor.  
"I don't think he left here, at least not by car. Let's look for footprints." Carter told Jo.

"AHHHHGGGG!" Atom screamed. "Over here!"

The boy robot had been walking along the road that entered the junk yard. A few hundred yards from where the car crusher had been, in a ditch by the side of the road, Atom stood in a trance. Carter and Lupo ran to where he stood, looking down. Staring up at them was Lamp's face. His head, neck, and shoulders were lying in the ditch.

"Oh my God! He looks like he was hit by a bomb." Carter gasped. "How the hell?"

Jo ran back to the junk yard and looked around. She found a pair of shoes in a tree, along with a human arm not far from the control panel of the car crusher.

"He's some more of him" she yelled.

Atom's face was white.  
"I think I did this." he said. "I remember now. The instant I got free from out of the trunk of that car and the crusher, I hit something. I must have been going supersonic at the time. Damn it! If only I had my eyes open, but I was in so much pain."

Jack Carter took that moment to answer his ringing cell phone.

"Hello Allison, what's up" Carter said gloomily.

"I analyzed the stuff that I scrapped off Atom's head. It was human intestinal tissue. How did he get covered with that?" Dr. Blake asked.

"I think I know. Look I'll call you back later." Carter said.

Atom looked at the sheriff.  
"I heard that. Look you guys go back to Eureka without me. I'll meet you back there later, I sorta need to be by myself for a while. I'll turn myself in when I get back, I promise." he said.

"What do you mean by 'turn your self in', Atom?" Jack asked.

"For murder of course. I took a human life. I don't think I can live with that."

Atom jumped skyward before anyone else could say anything. He flew in the general direction of Eureka and disappeared behind a cloud.

"I don't think he took that very well." Carter said.


	21. Chapter 21

**A Eureka Moment**

___Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.  
Eureka is a production of the SciFi network._

**Chapter 21 and Epilogue**

**Dr. Tenma **closed Andy's access panels and left him hooked up to the power supply to recharge.  
"I had to deactivate most of the advanced systems that the nanites had created during their upgrade of him. The radiation did too much damage to his circuits. Andy's body wasn't built with the kind of RAD hardened shielding that I had developed for Atom. I've replaced his damaged circuits with spares from GD's warehouse. Andy will survive, but he'll be mostly back to his old self when he awakes."

"You mean he won't be able to fly, and bench press locomotives anymore?" Jack Carter asked.

"Exactly. He will keep his new youthful appearance, but little else. Still, he will be able to function as your Deputy, just as he always did before I came along." Dr. Tenma sighed. "I guess this was one experiment of mine that ended in a failure."

"Now I wouldn't say that." Henry Deacon said, patting Uma on the shoulder. "It was a fine idea, and it actually did come in handy for a while."

"Listen, I've got to get back to the sheriff's office and do some paperwork. Jo, is already there and she's expecting me. I also have a feeling that you'd better come along, Dr. Tenma." Carter said.

"It will be a few hours before Andy wakes up." Tenma sighed, and he followed the Sheriff outside.

* * *

**When Carter and Tenma** arrived back at the police station Jo was seated at Carter's computer terminal filling out some reports. But the first thing that they noticed was Atom sitting in one of the two cells.

"He arrived back here about a half an hour ago and insisted that I lock him up. He signed a confession and left it with me." Lupo said, handing a single typed page to Carter.

Jack walked up the jail cell and looked at Atom. He quickly skimmed though the single page, tore it it half, crumbled it up, and tossed it into a trash can.

"That confession of your is worthless Atom. You didn't murder anyone." Jack said.

"Damn you Sheriff, I killed a human being!" Atom yelled at him.

"Only after he had killed you!" Carter yelled back. "If you were a flesh and blood human kid, you'd be dead now! Dr. Lamp was guilty of TWO murders here, he shot and killed Zachary Smith, and he put you into a fucking car crusher. I'd hardly call him a human being, Atom. We did find Lamp's Luger at the junk yard by the way, it had his prints on it and a shot had been fired from it recently."

Carter unlocked Atom's cell and swung the door open. Atom tried to grab at the door to close it again, but Tenma stepped in the way and entered the cell.

"Tobio" Tenma sighed. "I knew this day would come. The conflict between your robot AI, and your human kokoro. I created you with a higher moral sense than any human because I also gave you such tremendous powers that you would have to keep under control. I guess you will have to deal with what happened, but you will have to use your intelligence to realize that there is a greater good that you need to serve. It is sometimes necessary to sacrifice one to save the many. I already know that you would place the needs and lives of humans above your own. I also know that in the future, you may need to let an innocent person die in order to save others. It's a balancing act. Something that being human is all about. Can you understand me, Tobio?"

Atom looked into Uma's eyes and his own started to tear. Tenma reached out to Tobio with open arms and Atom returned the gesture. The two of them hugged each other for a good few minutes. Dr. Tenma then walked out of the cell and Atom followed him.

"Can we go home now father?" Tobio asked.

"Yes, but we have a stop to make first. A friend needs our help."

Atom took his father in his arms and they flew back to the research building at GD where Andy was lying asleep. As Uma and Atom approached the deputy, Andy's eyes winked open and he saw his friends.

"Hi Atom. Hello Dr. Tenma. I guess I survived my hero bit." Andy said.

"Almost." Tenma said. "You're back to being just plain old Andy again."

"Sorry Andy. I guess you'll have to leave the super stuff to me." Atom added.

"That's OK. I was always happy just being Carter's deputy."

******Epilogue**

**Several weeks later … **Ethan Edison's circular airfoil demonstration went wrong. The UFO shaped aircraft was out of control and was heading straight for Dr. Fargo's office window in the GD administration building. Zooming after it, Tobio's school clothes shredded as he intercepted the runaway and diverted it into the wooded area. A few minutes later, Tobio walked back to school in tattered fuel soaked rags with a huge smile on his face. He'd done it again!

The End … for now anyway!

* * *

_A.N. This story seems to have become a bit of a soap opera. I'm sure I can find more things to stuff into it, but I think it has run it's course for now._ _It certainly was fun combining the high tech, nerdy going's on at Eureka with a few of Tezuka's characters. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it._

_Please feel free to leave a final comment! Thanks!_


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